Edmund  C.  Tarbell 

Girl  Crocheting 


THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY 


BY 


EDMUND  VON  MACH,  Ph.d. 

RECENTLY  INSTRUCTOR  IN  THE   DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  FINE  ARTS,  HARVARD 
UNIVERSITY;  AUTHOR  OF  "OUTLINES  OF  THE  HISTORY  OF  PAINTING," 
"GREEK  SCULPTURE:    ITS  SPIRIT  AND  PRINCIPLES,"   "A  HAND- 
BOOK OF  GREEK  AND  ROMAN  SCULPTURE";  EDITOR  OF 
THE  AMERICAN  SECTION  OF  THE  "  ALLGEMEINES 
LEXIKON  DER  BILDENDEN  KUNSTLER  " 


BOSTON  AND  LONDON 

GINN  AND  COMPANY,  PUBLISHERS 

1908 


Entered  at  Stationers'  Hall 


Copyright,  1906,  1908 
By  EDMUND  VON  MACH 


ALL    RIGHTS    RESERVED 

GIFT  -Off 

.r  •  •       •  •  •  •« 

•  «     •  ••••«» 

'      t     •  •  •        •      r 


{Eftc  gtftenaum  £rea* 

GINN  &  COMPANY  •  PRO- 
PRIETORS •  BOSTON  •  U.S.A. 


Dear  Reader: 

If  you  too  are  caught  up  by  the  whirlpool  of 
interest  in  modern  painting,  and  are  bewildered 
by  conflicting  claims,  this  little  book  is  for  you. 
You  need  not  look  for  epoch-making  art  criti- 
cism, nor  for  clever,  pithy  sayings.  Read  these 
pages,  please,  not  for  their  own  sake,  but  to 
assure  yourself,  should  this  be  possible,  a  less 
prejudiced  mind  for  the  enjoyment  of  modern 
art.  The  field  is  big,  so  is  the  ocean,  but,  as 
somebody  has  said,  "  You  need  not  swim  in  the 
whole  of  it  at  any  one  time."   With  best  wishes 

for  success  and  pleasure, 

THE  AUTHOR 

Cambridge,  Massachusetts 


M9436' 


CONTENTS 

Page 

I.   French  Painting i 

II.   German  Painting 34 

III.   British  Painting 61 

IV.   American  Painting 88 

V.   Painting  in  Italy,  Spain,  and  in  the  Nether- 
lands    1 24 

VI.   Painting  in  Russia,  Denmark,  and  Scandinavia   .  145 

List  of  Artists 171 


ALPHABETICAL  LIST  OF 
ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

Bocklin,  Arnold,  The  Sacred  Grove 34 

Bonheur,  Rosa,  Oxen  Plowing 22 

Bouguereau,  William  Adolphe,  Madonna  Consolatrix  10 

Breton,  Jules  Adolphe,  The  End  of  Labor 30 

Chierici,  Gaetano,  The  Baby's  Bath 126 

Corot,  Jean  Baptiste,  The  Willows  near  Arras      ...  14 

De  Camp,  Joseph  R.,  Girl  with  the  Lute 114 

Durand,  Asher  Brown,  Landscape 106 

Enneking,  John  J.,  Landscape 96 

Gainsborough,  Thomas,  The  Blue  Boy 66 

Homer,  Winslow,  Fog  Bound 118 

Israels,  Jozef,  The  Fisherman's  Children 140 

Kowalski,  W.  Alfred  von,  The  Lone  Wolf 148 

Lenbach,  Franz  von,  Portrait  of  Mommsen 54 

Liebermann,  Max,  The  Flax  Spinners 50 

Makart,  Hans,  The  Hunt  of  Diana 156 

Martin,  Homer,  View  on  the  Seine 100 

Menzel,  Adolf  von,  The  Round  Table  at  Sanssouci        .  46 
Mesdag,  Hendrik  Willem,  The  Return  of  the  Fishing 

Boats 144 

Millet,  Jean  Francois,  First  Steps 26 

Modersohn,  Otto,  On  the  Moor 38 

vii 


viii  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

Page 

Rossetti,  Dante  Gabriel,  Ecce  Ancilla  Domini  ...  76 

Salmson,  Hugo  Fredrik,  At  the  Gates  of  Dalby    .     .     .  166 

Sargent,  John  Singer,  Portrait  of  Mrs.  Ian  Hamilton    .  88 

Schmitt,  Albert  Felix,  In  Wonderland 122 

Schreyer,  Adolf,  A  Halt  in  the  Oasis 42 

Tarbell,  Edmund  C,  Girl  Crocheting       .     .     .      Frontispiece 

Troyon,  Constant,  The  Return  to  the  Barnyarn     ...  18 

Uhde,  Fritz  von,  Christ  Teaching 58 

Watts,  George  Frederick,  Love  and  Death     ....  82 

Whistler,  James  A.  McNeil,  The  White  Girl  .     .     .     .  no 

Zuloaga,  Ignacio,  Daniel  Zuloaga  and  his  Daughters       .  132 


BRIEF  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Muther,  Richard,  The  History  of  Modern  Painting.  Revised 
edition  in  4  volumes,  profusely  illustrated.  London.  J.  M. 
Dent  &  Co.  New  York.  E.  P.  Dutton  Company.  The  ex- 
haustive bibliographies,  arranged  by  subjects  at  the  end  of 
each  volume,  are  invaluable. 

Brinton,  Christian,  Modern  Art.  New  York.  The  Baker  and 
Taylor  Company.  Excellent  essays  on  the  works  of  repre- 
sentative masters  of  the  present  day. 

Pythian,  J.  E.,  Fifty  years  of  Modern  Painting:  From  Corot  to 
Sargent.    New  York.     E.  P.  Dutton  Company. 

I  sham,  Samuel,  The  History  of  American  Painting.  New  York. 
The  Macmillan  Company. 

Caffin,  Charles  H.,  The  Story  of  American  Painting.  New 
York.    Frederick  A.  Stokes  Company. 

Mach,  Edmund  von,  Outlines  of  the  History  of  Painting  from 
1200  to  1900  a.d.  Boston.  Ginn  &  Company.  The  tables 
of  Part  One  insure  a  quick  survey  of  the  entire  subject. 
Part  Two  contains  an  alphabetical  list  of  all  artists  of  im- 
portance, their  dates,  and  a  key  to  the  correct  pronouncia- 
tion  of  their  names,  and  Part  Three  a  brief  account  of  the 
history  of  painting. 

Attention  is  called  to  the  Catalogue  of  Books  on  Art  issued  by  Charles 
Scribner's  Sons  and  containing  an  almost  complete  list  of  American,  and  easily 
accessible  English,  books  on  art. 


THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

CHAPTER  I        ,       ,      : 

- 

FRENCH   PAINTING 

The  complete  history  of  French  painting  in 
the  nineteenth  century  will  never  be  written ;  for 
so  incredibly  extensive  is  the  work  and  so  uni- 
versal and  comprehensive  the  genius  of  the  men 
who  from  France  dominated  the  art  of  the  world, 
that  no  lifetime  is  long  enough  to  understand 
these  men  and  their  ideas  in  detail.  Movement 
followed  upon  movement  with  lightning-like  ra- 
pidity, and  hardly  was  the  essence  of  one  grasped 
before  it  was  absorbed  by  another,  or  irresistibly 
swept  away  by  a  third.  The  men  themselves 
changed.  Starting  with  one  idea  and  pursuing 
it  sincerely,  they  soon  detected  another  worthier 
one  and  followed  that.  In  France,  as  everywhere, 
there  were  second-rate  men  during  this  period, 
but  rarely  was  the  list  of  first-rate  men  so  full  as 


2  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

it  was  in  the  nineteenth  century.  And  the  mo- 
mentous thing  is  that  every  new  idea  found  not 
one  but  many  a  genius  eager  to  serve  it.  Art  in 
France  was  advanced,  to  use  a  simile,  not  by  a 
team  of  average  perfection  but  by  one  of  picked 
mer?. 

He  who  desires  to  understand,  or  at  least  to 
begin  to  understand,  the  several  movements  of 
French  art,  must  first  familiarize  himself  with  the 
conditions  which  made  them  possible. 

The  success  of  the  French  Revolution  and  the 
establishment  of  the  galleries  of  the  Louvre  as 
Mus'ee  nationals  des  Arts  are  the  most  important 
factors.  The  people,  not  kings,  are  sovereign. 
Art,  like  everything  else,  exists  for  them,  —  for 
all  of  them  and  not  for  a  chosen  few.  In  future 
the  artists  will  have  to  appeal  to  the  people ;  and 
since  the  people  as  a  whole  are  naturally  more 
diversified  in  tastes  than  was  the  comparatively 
small  class  of  men  and  women  whose  position 
depended  on  the  approval  of  a  court,  the  variety 
of  their  tastes  demanded  a  far  more  variegated 
art  than  had  been  exacted  of  the  artists  formerly. 
Or,  to  look  at  the  reverse  of  this  proposition,  an 


FRENCH  PAINTING  3 

artist  of  new  individual  ideas  could  now  hope  to 
find  approval  in  some  quarters  at  least,  while  here- 
tofore the  disapproval  of  the  court  would  have 
meant  failure  for  him.  That  the  people  at  large 
were  more  readily  swayed  by  the  force  of  a  new 
genius  than  the  conservative  aristocracy  had  been 
is  also  easily  perceived,  so  that  the  rapidity  with 
which  this  or  that  school  gained  prominence  in 
the  nineteenth  century  is  not  surprising. 

These  remarkably  favorable  conditions  for  the 
growth  of  individual  art  had  not  come  to  pass 
with  one  bold  stroke ;  not  even  the  establishment 
of  a  republic  could  have  done  that.  For  more 
than  a  century  the  way  for  them  had  been  pre- 
pared by  trifling  events  and  almost  unnoticeable 
evolutions  of  popular  sentiment.  As  regards  pop- 
ular interest  in  art  the  establishment  of  public 
exhibitions  had  been  of  great  importance.  The 
first  exhibition  took  place  in  1673  and,  beginning 
with  1737,  others  followed  regularly  in  the  salon 
carve  in  the  Louvre.  It  is  this  salon  which  has 
given  the  now  famous  name  to  the  annual  exhibi- 
tions of  the  Societe  des  artistes  francais,  which 
to-day  are  held  in  the  Palais  de  V Industrie,  while 


4  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

rival  salons  are  conducted  by  the  Societe  national* 
des  beaux  arts  in  a  gallery  on  the  champ  de  Mars. 
The  first  large  English  exhibition  took  place  in 
1760,  and  the  first  German  exhibition  in  1786. 

Moreover  the  growth  of  the  public  press,  desir- 
ous of  speaking  with  authority  on  all  subjects, 
stimulated  public  interest,  especially  when  the 
company  of  art  critics  appeared  and  began  to 
make  extensive  use  of  its  columns.  Soon  art 
magazines  were  established,  at  first  without  illus- 
trations, but  later  with  reproductions  of  constantly 
increasing  worth.  In  short,  everything  was  done 
to  familiarize  the  people  with  what  occurred  in 
the  world  of  art. 

Thus  far  all  the  causes  which  stimulated  the 
growth  of  art  are  readily  understood.  The  most 
important  factor,  however,  is  not  so  easily  per- 
ceived. One  may  well  ask  what  it  was  that 
turned  the  minds  of  the  people  so  forcibly  to 
painting  rather  than  to  sculpture  or  architecture. 
What  was  it  that  made  more  men  of  genius  arise 
in  France  at  this  time  than  had  ever  before  ap- 
peared in  any  one  country  at  any  one  time  ?  Was 
it  Heaven,  to  speak  with  Vasari,  who  had  taken 


FRENCH  PAINTING  5 

compassion  on  humanity?  These  are  questions 
which  cannot  be  answered,  so  that  one  must  rest 
content  with  realizing  that  some  inexplicable 
forces  were  at  work  shaping  art  and  pressing 
the  various  men  into  their  service. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century 
the  classic  revival  held  its  sway.  "  Form  is  every- 
thing" was  the  watchword  of  the  school  which 
David  led.  But  hardly  had  the  men  of  this  school 
formulated  their  creed  and  begun  to  practice  it 
when  Gericault  and  most  especially  Delacroix 
pointed  out  that  sentiment  and  passion  are  more 
satisfactorily  conveyed  by  color,  light,  and  indis- 
tinctness than  by  clearly  defined  outlines.  "  Let 
each  man  express  his  passions  and  emotions ;  let 
him  feel  what  he  is  doing,"  was  the  maxim  of  the 
so-called  Romanticists.  In  their  technique  they 
strove  to  develop  color,  as  the  Classicists  labored 
to  master  drawing.  At  first  both  schools  had 
their  ardent  admirers,  and  later  each  had  fol- 
lowers who  endeavored  to  learn  the  best  of  both 
without  going  to  their  extremes.  And  then  there 
were  some  independent  workers,  and  others  who 
laid  less  stress   on   how   they  painted   than   on 


6  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

what  they  painted.  The  Napoleonic  era  tempted 
them  to  paint  military  pictures,  while  the  interest 
of  great  numbers  of  people  who  did  not  under- 
stand the  fight  between  the  Classicists  and  the 
Romanticists  induced  them  to  paint  genre  pic- 
tures, or,  in  a  lighter  vein,  to  portray  humorous 
anecdotes  and  manners.  Others  again,  dissatis- 
fied with  existing  political  conditions,  painted  in- 
cidents which  were  meant  to  teach  lessons  in 
sociology. 

While  all  this  took  place  there  appeared  the 
champion  of  a  new  cause.  "  You  paint  men  and 
beasts  and  trees,"  Courbet  seemed  to  shout, — 
"subjects  which  are  taken  from  nature,  —  but 
you  are  not  true  to  nature  either  with  your  lines 
or  with  your  colors.  Truth  to  nature  is  the  only 
right  thing  in  art.  Don't  reason,  don't  dream. 
Just  open  your  eyes,  see,  and  then  paint  what 
you  see."    This  was  the  maxim  of  the  Realists. 

Strangely  enough,  with  one  important  modifi- 
cation, it  was  also  the  maxim  of  the  great  land- 
scape painters  of  the  Barbizon  school;  for  although 
"  Back  to  nature  "  was  their  motto,  they  held  that 
there  is  more  in  nature  than  you  can  readily  see. 


FRENCH  PAINTING  7 

You  must  study  her  with  an  open  mind  and  an 
open  heart.  Only  thus  will  she  reveal  to  you  her 
mysteries.  Practicing  what  they  taught,  they 
created  what  is  called  "the  intimate  landscape," 
—  le  pay  sage  intime. 

Then  out  of  this  movement  quite  naturally 
grew  the  one  called  Impressionism,  which  has 
always  been  singularly  misunderstood.  The  time 
had  come  when  people  drew  logical  conclusions 
from  the  trend  of  art,  which  had  been  away  from 
nature  as  people  think  of  her  and  toward  nature  as 
she  is.  To  the  followers  of  this  new  movement, 
nature  as  she  is  means  as  she  appears  to  the  ob- 
servant eye.  Naturally  the  observant  eye  for 
them  was  their  own  eye,  so  that  large  play  was 
given  to  idiosyncrasies.  Often,  indeed,  nature 
was  probably  held  responsible  for  defects  of  the 
artist's  own  vision.  The  excesses  which  were  thus 
perpetrated  brought  ridicule  on  the  movement. 
Its  tenets,  nevertheless,  are  fundamentally  so  true 
that  they  have  revolutionized  the  entire  art  of  paint- 
ing. Abstract  nature  in  pictures  has  disappeared, 
and  everywhere  allowances  are  made  to  the  pecul- 
iarities of  human  vision.    Most  especially  is  this 


8  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

true  of  the  use  of  color.  The  great  problem  which 
the  Impressionists  set  themselves  was  to  represent 
outdoor  light  in  all  its  brightness.  To  do  this  ac- 
curately is  impossible.  No  pigment  is  sufficiently 
luminous  to  reproduce  sunlight.  Devices,  there- 
fore, had  to  be  introduced  by  which  colors  would 
seem  to  do  what  they  actually  could  not  do.  No 
people  have  been  so  successful  in  accomplishing 
this  as  the  French,  and  the  master  of  them  is  Monet. 
By  the  side  of  these  Impressionists  another 
school  grew  up,  composed  of  the  so-called  New 
Idealists.  These  artists  learned  many  points  in 
technique  from  Monet  and  his  followers,  but  dif- 
fered fundamentally  from  them  in  their  concep- 
tions of  what  constitutes  a  worthy  subject.  To 
them  the  world  of  ideas  was  as  real  as  that  of 
physical  vision.  Borrowing  their  forms  from  the 
latter,  they  created  another  of  great  beauty,  ap- 
pealing everywhere  to  the  nobler,  the  contempla- 
tive side  of  men.  In  the  pursuit  of  this  aim  they 
did  not  always  feel  bound  by  strict  adherence  to 
truth ;  and  since  many  of  them  leaned  toward  the 
decorative  style  of  art,  they  often  sacrificed  actu- 
ality to  pleasing  outline. 


FRENCH  PAINTING  9 

Jacques  Louis  David  (17 48-18 2 5)  was  the  first 
man  of  genius  to  break  with  the  traditions  of 
the  eighteenth  century.  A  distant  relative  of 
Boucher,  he  was  at  first  closely  wrapped  up  in 
the  teachings  of  this  great  man,  although  his 
own  teacher,  Joseph  Marie  Vien,  had  already 
begun  to  set  out  on  a  path  of  his  own.  David 
won  the  prix  de  Rome  when  he  was  twenty- 
seven  years  old,  and  before  setting  out  for  Italy 
solemnly  declared  that  the  classic  movement, 
which  had  begun  with  Winckelmann's  publica- 
tions in  1756,  should  not  corrupt  him.  "The 
antique,"  he  said,  "  lacks  action ;  it  does  not 
move."  He  had,  however,  hardly  reached  Rome 
when  this  maligned  antique  drew  him  into  its 
nets  and  made  him  its  most  zealous  proselyte. 
No  other  lover  of  the  classic  ideals  has  had 
such  influence  on  art  as  David.  He  swept  every- 
thing before  him  —  France,  Italy,  Germany,  and 
in  part  the  Netherlands  —  and  there  is  probably 
no  country  that  has  not  felt  the  power  of  his 
personality.  David  could  never  have  accom- 
plished his  successes  if,  in  addition  to  being 
an   admirer   of   form,  he   had    not   been    also   a 


IO  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

painstaking  and  loving  student  of  nature.  "  His 
one  great  fault,"  says  Professor  Gensel,  "was 
that  he  did  not  seek  beauty  in  the  individual, 
but  in  the  average."  As  a  result  his  art  was 
not  "natural  and  free,  but  cold  and  pedantic." 
Cold  it  is,  to  be  sure,  but  it  is  that  coldness 
which  suggests  grandeur  and  nobility,  and  which 
compels  the  admiration  of  the  spectator  in  spite 
of  himself. 

Four  hundred  and  twenty  artists  of  all  nation- 
alities are  mentioned  as  pupils  of  David;  few, 
however,  have  made  names  for  themselves.  The 
personality  of  the  master  was  too  powerful.  As 
a  result  his  school  soon  declined,  and  would  have 
done  so  even  sooner  if  Jean  Dominique  Ingres 
( 1 780-1867)  had  not  infused  new  life  into  it. 
Ingres  was  attracted  not  only  by  the  antique 
but  also  by  the  later  paintings  of  Raphael, 
which  taught  him  grace.  His  color  was  always 
subservient  to  his  drawing,  while  his  modeling, 
especially  of  nude  figures,  revealed  the  unex- 
celled master  of  form.  He  was  at  his  best  in 
portraits  and  in  pictures  of  single  figures,  but 
was  unsuccessful  in  large  compositions. 


William  Adolphe  Bouguereau 

Madonna  Consolatrix 


FRENCH  PAINTING  II 

The  fact  that  Ingres  sought  inspiration  in 
part  from  Raphael  makes  a  bond  between  the 
classic  movement  under  his  leadership  and  the 
so-called  Romanticists,  for  these  men  also  turned 
to  the  masters  of  a  more  immediate  past.  The 
fundamental  difference  between  the  two  schools 
lies  in  the  contempt  which  the  Romanticists 
showered  on  the  antique,  and  the  ardor  with 
which  they  defended  the  superiority  of  color 
over  form.  Theodore  Gericault  (i  791-1824)  was 
the  first  of  this  school,  but  he  died  too  young  to 
become  its  leader.  This  honor  was  reserved  for 
Eugene  Delacroix  (17 '99-1863).  The  art  develop- 
ment of  this  man  is  best  summed  up  in  the 
words  which  he  himself  entered  in  his  diary 
shortly  before  his  death,  "  To  be  a  feast  for  the 
eyes  is  the  first  merit  of  a  picture."  Color  and 
all  its  enticing  charms  were  the  stars  which  he 
followed,  unmindful  of  the  classic-academic  dis- 
approval. They  called  him  "the  painter  with 
the  intoxicated  brush,"  or  "  the  scourge  of  art," 
but  he  steadfastly  followed  his  ideals.  The  singu- 
lar greatness  of  his  artistic  personality  is  clearly 
seen   in   his   decorations   of   the   library   in   the 


I2  THE  ART  OF   PAINTING 

Bourbon  Palace  and  in  the  Apollo  Gallery  in 
the  Louvre.  Unlike  most  contemporary  painters 
of  wall  decorations,  he  knew  how  to  adapt  both 
his  conceptions  and  his  compositions  to  the 
spaces   which    he   had   to   decorate. 

The  first  Frenchman  to  visit  the  Orient  and 
to  bring  home  with  him  a  haunting  love  of  the 
gayety  of  southern  light  and  warmth  was  Alex- 
andre Decamps.  Delacroix  journeyed  to  Algiers 
directly  afterward,  and  it  soon  became  the  cus- 
tom for  artists  to  visit  these  foreign  countries. 
Naturally  fond  of  colors,  their  sojourns  in  south- 
ern climes  increased  their  endeavors  to  produce 
voluptuous  symphonies  in  color.  Sometimes  they 
succeeded,  sometimes  they  failed.  "  Color  cooks  " 
they  have  been  called,  but  it  must  be  conceded 
that  their  dishes  are  often  delicious. 

In  the  matter  of  subjects  the  Romanticists  de- 
lighted in  anything  that  promised  a  rich  and  sug- 
gestive coloring.  Their  minds  were  thus  readily 
turned  to  the  history  and  legends  of  the  Middle 
Ages.  It  is  this  choice  of  subjects  which  connects 
Paul  Delaroche  (i  797-1856)  with  the  followers  of 
Delacroix,  although  he  was  more  interested  in  the 


FRENCH  PAINTING  1 3 

subjects  themselves  than  in  their  execution,  and  in 
this  respect  was  more  closely  akin  to  the  German 
Romanticists  than  to  his  French  confreres. 

The  most  famous  of  the  pupils  of  Delaroche 
was  Thomas  Couture  (181 5-1879)  who  com- 
bined exquisite  drawing  with  beautiful  coloring, 
and  who  gained  even  greater  influence  by  his 
remarkable  gift  as  teacher  than  by  his  pictures. 
In  his  most  successful  pictures  he  struck  a  lighter 
vein,  showing  himself  a  man  of  humor  in  his 
scenes  from  the  lives  of  Harlequin  and  Pierrot. 
Similarly  ready  to  break  away  from  tradition, 
Georges  Michel  (1 763-1843)  may  be  said  to  have 
been  one  of  the  first  to  discover  the  beauty  of 
French  landscape.  He  painted  Nature  not  as 
she  looked  in  Italy  but  as  she  was  at  home.  In 
his  lifetime  he  was  little  known.  Running  away 
from  school,  eloping  with  a  laundress  ere  he  was 
sixteen,  ostracized  from  the  salon  in  18 14,  and 
poor  all  his  life,  still  he  worked  on  steadily  until  he 
died  in  1843  at  the  age  of  eighty.  Sometime  dur- 
ing his  long  life  he  made  a  business  of  restoring 
pictures.  In  this  profession  he  probably  became 
acquainted  with  the  great  Dutch  artists,  whose 


14  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

influence  shows  in  many  of  his  compositions, 
notably  those  portraying  scenes  in  Montmartre. 

The  exploits  of  Napoleon  I  on  the  battlefield 
suggested  to  many  artists  the  desirability  of 
painting  military  scenes.  Horace  Vernet  (1789- 
1863),  best  known  for  this  class  of  work,  was  one 
of  the  first  to  take  it  up,  although  he  painted 
along  other  lines  in  his  youth.  Perhaps  the  most 
successful  of  all  military  painters,  barring  Meis- 
sonier,  was  Alphonse  de  Neuville  (1836- 1885), 
whose  pictures  are  spirited  and  at  the  same  time 
delicate  in  finish,  giving  evidence  of  the  fine 
caliber  of  his  artistic  disposition. 

Ernest  Meissonier  (1815-1891),  the  "darling 
of  the  gods  "  —  if  success  in  one's  lifetime  is  an 
indication  —  and  the  great  favorite  of  the  peo- 
ple, followed  a  style  of  painting  so  utterly  at 
variance  with  the  artistic  tenets  of  to-day  that 
he  has  been  displaced  from  his  pedestal  of  fame, 
—  unjustly,  we  may  be  sure,  for  popular  verdicts 
are  apt  to  go  to  extremes.  Meissonier  held  that 
as  all  objects  of  nature  were  composed  of  well- 
arranged  atoms,  many  of  which  are  too  small  to 
be  seen  by  the  naked  eye,  so  in  a  picture  all 


The  Willows  near  Arras 

After  the  painting  by  Corot 


FRENCH  PAINTING  1 5 

details  deserved  to  be  finished  with  such  care 
that  the  full  complement  of  their  beauties  could 
be  detected  only  under  the  magnifying  glass. 
The  effect  of  the  whole,  in  consequence,  is  sacri- 
ficed to  the  charm  of  details,  but  if  one  takes 
time  to  study  these,  one  discovers  new  beau- 
ties, both  of  coloring  and  of  drawing,  and  under- 
stands why  his  pictures  have  sold  at  the  rate  of 
over  one  thousand  dollars  per  square  inch. 

At  first  Meissonier  painted  small  genre  pic- 
tures, but  later  he  turned  to  military  scenes, 
and  by  these  made  his  reputation  in  the  world 
at  large.  He  painted  only  what  he  could  actu- 
ally see,  and  for  his  large  compositions  had 
everything  prepared,  down  to  the  detail  of  an 
overturned  cannon  or  the  traces  of  horses'  hoofs 
in  the  melting  snow.  The  longer  one  looks  at 
his  pictures  the  more  points  of  scenic  interest 
one  finds,  and  the  farther  and  farther  one  grows 
away  from  the  mood  into  which  the  first  view 
of  them  might,  and  certainly  should,  have  placed 
one.  Meissonier  appeals  to  the  orderly  intellect. 
The  whole  mysterious  province  of  human  sen- 
sibilities he  leaves  untouched. 


1 6  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

The  same  is  true,  although  to  a  lesser  degree, 
of  some  of  the  so-called  Semi-Classicists,  who 
really  are  the  successors  of  the  David  school, 
although  they  have  not  refrained  from  learning 
lessons  from  various  other  movements.  Alex- 
andre Cabanel  (1823- 1889)  and  Paul  Baudry 
( 1 828-1 886)  were  essentially  painters  of  the 
seductive  beauty  of  women.  William  Adolphe 
Bouguereau  (182 5- 1905)  won  fame  with  the  ele- 
gance and  sensuality  of  his  mythological,  his- 
torical, and  religious  pictures.  His  technique 
was  perfect,  so  that  one  may  justly  regret  that 
he  did  not  aspire  to  a  higher  and  more  lasting 
level  of  art. 

The  best  known  of  all  the  Semi-Classicists 
was  Jean  Leon  Gerbme  (1824- 1904),  a  versatile 
man,  a  scientific  observer,  and  at  heart  a  lover 
of  details.  The  wealth  of  his  subjects  makes  it 
difficult  to  classify  him ;  he  painted  mythological, 
historical,  and  oriental  scenes,  and  later  did  not 
despise  even  genre.  Everywhere  one  finds  the 
same  perfection  of  technique  and  the  same  intel- 
lectual and  orderly  disposition  of  details,  all  of 
which  are  carefully  executed.    "  A  man  of  great 


FRENCH  PAINTING  17 

learning  in  many  departments,"  so  Professor  Van 
Dyke  says  of  him,  "  he  is  no  painter  to  be  sneered 
at,  and  yet  not  a  painter  to  make  the  pulse  beat 
faster  or  to  arouse  the  aesthetic  emotions." 

If  it  is  difficult  to  classify  Gerome  with  any 
particular  school,  it  is  impossible  to  do  this  with 
a  large  number  of  artists  who  showed  so  much 
independence  that  they  deserve  to  be  mentioned 
as  individuals. 

Pierre  Paul  Prud'kon  (1758-1823)  seems  to 
have  offered  a  place  of  refuge  in  his  pictures 
to  everything  that  David  considered  unmanly 
and  unworthy  of  art.  "  He  is  the  Boucher,  the 
Watteau,  of  our  time,"  David  nevertheless  said 
of  him ;  "  suffer  him  to  be  as  he  is ;  his  influence 
on  our  school,  as  it  is  at  present,  will  not  be 
harmful."  And  Prud'hon  himself  is  quoted  as 
saying,  "  I  cannot  and  I  will  not  see  with  the 
eyes  of  others;  their  spectacles  do  not  fit  me." 
He  was  fond  of  soft  light,  youthful  bodies,  and 
the  charm  of  innocence. 

As  portrait  painter  Mtne.  Elisabeth  Vig'ee- 
Lebrun  (1 755-1842)  has  made  a  name  for  her- 
self, being  best  known  for  the  pictures  of  herself 


1 8  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

and  daughter,  in  which  the  same  ideals  that 
guided  Prud'hon  can  be  recognized.  Her  best 
work  dates  from  the  eighteenth  century,  although 
she  lived  half  her  life  in  the  nineteenth  century 
and  died  in  1842,  eighty-six  years  of  age. 

Born  one  year  after  Mme.  Lebrun  had  died, 
Henri  Regnault  (1843-187 1)  early  promised  a 
brilliant  career.  Unfortunately  it  was  cut  short 
by  his  untimely  death  in  the  Franco- Prussian 
War.  Naturally  his  fellow-citizens  consider  his 
promise  as  almost  the  equivalent  of  actual 
achievement,  and  rank  him  as  one  of  their  best 
artists.  In  color  he  has  been  declared  to  be  the 
equal  of  Delacroix,  but  in  choice  of  subjects  he 
stands  alone.  His  fiery  temper  made  him  select 
scenes  of  horror,  in  which  the  most  somber  of 
his  Spanish  contemporaries  might  have  delighted. 
It  is  impossible  to  judge  what  he  would  have 
accomplished  if  he  had  lived  longer. 

Jules  Elie  Delaunay  (1828-1892)  made  his 
mark  as  an  ardent  admirer  of  the  early  Italian 
Renaissance,  and,  although  not  a  genius  in  the 
sense  of  David  or  Delacroix,  infused  into  his 
pictures   a  spirit   of  artistic  dignity    which    will 


FRENCH  PAINTING  1 9 

preserve  his  name  as  that  of  a  true  artist  when 
many  of  the  Classicists  and  Romanticists  will 
have  been  forgotten.  He  was  also  singularly 
successful  in  portraiture. 

With  Gustave  Courbet  (18 19-1878)  there  came 
a  revolution  into  the  world  of  art.  He  has  been 
called  a  "painter-animal,"  and  indeed  the  delica- 
cies of  human  intercourse  were  unknown  to  him 
both  in  painting  and  in  life.  He  was  for  French 
art  what  George  Bernard  Shaw  has  set  out 
to  be  for  the  English  stage,  both  men  endeavor- 
ing to  supplant  idealism,  as  they  interpret  ex- 
isting conditions,  with  realism.  "  The  galleries 
should  remain  closed  for  twenty  years,"  *  shouted 
Courbet,  "  so  that  the  moderns  might  at  last 
begin  to  see  with  their  own  eyes.  ...  As  for 
Mr.  Raphael  there  is  no  doubt  that  he  painted 
some  interesting  portraits,  but  I  cannot  find  any 
ideas  in  them.  ...  I  have  studied  the  art  of 
the  old  masters  and  of  the  more  modern.  I  have 
tried  to  imitate  the  one  as  little  as  I  have  tried  to 
copy  the  other,  but  out  of  the  total  knowledge 
of  tradition  I  have  wished  to  draw  a  firm  and 

1  Quoted  from  Muther,  A  History  of  Modern  Painting,  Vol.  II,  p.  510. 


20  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

independent  sense  of  my  own  individuality.  .  .  . 
I  am  a  sheer  realist,  which  means  a  loyal  ad- 
herent of  the  truth  which  is  true.  .  .  .  Realism 
can  only  exist  by  the  representation  of  things 
which  the  artist  can  see  and  handle.  .  .  .  The 
grand  painting  which  we  have  stands  in  contra- 
diction with  our  social  conditions,  and  ecclesias- 
tical painting  in  contradiction  with  the  spirit  of 
the  century.  It  is  nonsensical  for  painters  of 
more  or  less  talent  to  dish  up  themes  in  which 
they  have  no  belief,  —  themes  which  could  only 
have  flowered  in  some  epoch  other  than  our  own. 
Better  paint  railway  stations  with  views  of  places 
through  which  one  travels,  with  likenesses  of 
great  men  through  whose  birthplace  one  passes, 
with  engine  houses,  mines,  and  manufactories; 
for  these  are  the  saints  and  miracles  of  the 
nineteenth  century." 

Courbet  was  as  uncompromising  in  his  art  as 
he  was  in  his  speech ;  he  was  a  straightforward 
man,  but  had  the  finer  qualities  left  out  of  his 
make-up.  He  despised  the  choice  of  pleasing 
subjects  and  was  antagonistic  to  the  sensuous 
charm  of  color,  so  that  a  certain  somber  brown 


FRENCH  PAINTING  21 

characterizes  his  pictures.  One  cannot  love 
either  the  man  or  his  work,  but  one  stands 
aghast  with  a  sense  almost  of  admiration  before 
the  boldness  of  this  "  painter-animal." 

Other  men  followed  the  lead  of  Courbet  with- 
out entirely  losing  their  place  by  the  side  of  a 
beauty-loving  humanity.  Among  the  best  known 
are  Theodule  Ribot  ( 1823-189 1),  who  has  been 
compared  with  the  Spaniard,  Ribera,  and  Carolus 
Duran,  who  began  with  powerful  themes  taken 
from  the  life  of  the  common  people,  and  who 
later  achieved  notable  successes  with  his  strong 
portraits  of  women.  He  was  one  of  the  teach- 
ers of  the  American,  John  Singer  Sargent,  by 
whom  he  has  been  surpassed  in  brilliancy  of 
color,  while  he  has  remained  without  an  equal 
in  the  spontaneity  and  convincingness  of  his  con- 
ceptions. Another  excellent  portrait  painter  is 
Leon  Bonnat  (1833 ). 

The  teachings  of  Courbet,  whose  motto,  one 
might  say,  was  "  Back  to  nature,"  were  followed 
by  a  set  of  artists  who  assembled  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Barbizon  and  Fontainebleau.  These 
artists,   however,    followed    Courbet's    teachings 


2  2  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

in  their  own  peculiar  way;  for  with  his  coarse- 
ness, for  instance,  they  had  nothing  in  common. 
Jules  Dtipre  (18 12-1889),  the  oldest  of  four 
famous  landscapists,  delighted  in  the  play  of  the 
clouds  in  the  heavens,  so  that  his  land  is  often 
but  a  necessary  complement  of  the  composition. 
Light  is  the  charm  of  his  pictures,  and  color  a 
means  of  expressing  its  multifarious  aspects  in  a 
clouded  sky.  "  He  constantly  sought  new  color 
recipes,  and  put  the  pigments  on  the  canvas  so 
thick  that  his  landscapes  are  easily  recognized." 
Narciso  Virgilio  Diaz  de  la  Pena  (1808 -18  76),  a 
Spaniard  who  died  in  France,  had  perhaps  the 
least  powerful  personality  of  the  Barbizon  quartet, 
but  he  was  an  amiable  painter  of  exquisite  taste, 
both  in  design  and  in  coloring. 

The  man  of  strength  among  these  artists  was 
Theodore  Rousseau  (18 12-1867).  He  really  was 
the  first  to  appreciate  that  nature  has  a  heart, 
that  there  is  a  life  which  only  the  contemplative 
mind  perceives.  He  was  a  no  less  ardent  stu- 
dent of  nature  than  Courbet,  but  he  went  deeper 
and  did  not  stop  with  external  accidents.  With 
him  began  the  so-called  intimate  landscape. 


FRENCH  PAINTING  23 

The  best  qualified  by  nature,  however,  to 
understand  her  mysteries  was  Jean  Baptiste 
Camille  Corot  (1 796-1875).  The  points  in  which 
he  differs  from  Rousseau  are  thus  summed  up 
by  Professor  Muther:  "In  Rousseau  a  tree  is  a 
proud,  toughly  knotted  personality,  a  noble  self- 
conscious  creation ;  in  Corot  it  is  a  soft,  tremu- 
lous being  rocking  in  the  fragrant  air,  in  which 
it  whispers  and  murmurs  of  love.  Corot  did  not 
care  to  paint  the  oak,  the  favorite  tree  with 
artists  who  have  a  passion  for  form,  nor  the 
chestnut,  nor  the  elm,  but  preferred  to  summon 
amid  the  delicate  play  of  sunbeams  the  aspen, 
the  poplar,  the  alder,  the  birch  with  its  white 
slender  stem  and  its  pale,  tremulous  leaves,  and 
the  willow  with  its  light  foliage."  The  feeling 
of  Corot  toward  nature  is  beautifully  set  forth 
in  one  of  his  letters  '  to  Dupre.  "  One  rises 
early,  three  o'clock  in  the  morning,  before  the 
sun  is  up,  and  takes  a  place  at  the  foot  of  a 
tree.  One  looks  and  waits.  At  first  one  does 
not  see  much.  Nature  resembles  a  white  veil 
whence  barely  the  profile  of  a  few  masses  detach 

1  Only  extracts  from  the  letter  are  here  translated. 


24  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

themselves.  Bing  !  the  sun  brightens,  he  has  not 
yet  torn  away  the  haze  beyond  which  lie  hidden 
the  meadow,  the  valley,  the  hills  of  the  horizon. .  .  . 
Bing !  bing !  the  first  ray  of  sunlight  —  a  second 
ray.  The  little  flowers  awake  with  joy.  On  all 
there  sparkles  a  drop  of  dew.  The  leaves  stir  in 
the  morning  breeze,  and  in  the  foliage  invisible 
birds  raise  a  song.  .  .  .  The  gods  of  love  on 
wings  of  butterflies  descend  on  the  meadows 
and  stir  the  tall  grass.  Nothing  is  seen,  but 
everything  is  there.  The  entire  landscape  is  be- 
hind the  transparent  veil  of  mist.  And  then  the 
mist  rises  —  rises,  and  discloses  the  river  streaked 
with  silver,  the  pastures,  trees,  huts,  and  the 
fleeting  background.  At  last  one  recognizes 
everything  at  which  one  before  only  guessed." 
And  so  Corot  lives  with  his  friend  through  one 
of  his  glorious  out-of-door  days,  and  closes  thus : 
"  Nature  goes  to  sleep,  while  the  fresh  evening 
air  sighs  in  the  leaves  of  the  trees,  and  dew 
studs  with  pearls  the  velvety  lawns.  Nymphs 
flutter  away,  hide  themselves,  and  wish  they 
were  seen.  Bing !  a  star  in  the  sky ;  it  sticks  a 
little  head  on  the  surface  of  the  pond.    Charming 


FRENCH  PAINTING  25 

star,  whose  twinkle  is  increased  by  the  shiv- 
ering waters,  you  are  looking  at  me ;  you  are 
winking  your  eye  and  smiling.  Bing!  a  second 
star  appears  in  the  water.  Welcome,  welcome, 
fresh  and  charming  stars !  Bing !  bing !  bing ! 
three,  six,  twenty  stars  —  all  the  stars  of  the 
heavens  —  have  met  at  a  rendezvous  in  this  happy 
pond.  Things  grow  darker.  The  pond  alone 
shines;  it  is  swarming  with  stars.  The  sun  has 
set,  but  the  inner  sun  of  the  soul,  the  sun  of  art, 
is  rising.    Good !  good  !  My  picture  is  done." 

Little  needs  to  be  added.  He  who  lives  one  day 
thus  with  Corot  understands  the  art  of  this  great, 
lovable  man.  Corot  lived  to  be  almost  eighty 
years  of  age  and  spent  the  last  forty  years  in  close 
touch  with  nature.  "  Last  night,"  he  said  on  his 
deathbed,  "  I  saw  in  a  dream  a  landscape  with 
a  sky  all  rosy.  It  was  charming,  and  still  stands 
before  me  quite  distinctly ;  it  will  be  marvelous  to 
paint."  How  many  landscapes,  we  may  exclaim 
with  Professor  Muther,  may  he  not  have  thus 
dreamed  and  painted  from  the  recollected  vision ! 

Closely  allied  with  these  four  landscape  paint- 
ers were  several  painters  of  animals.    Constant 


26  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

Troyon  (18 10-1865)  *s  unequaled  in  the  inti- 
macy which  he  reveals  between  the  grazing 
cattle  and  the  pasture  land.  Emile  Van  Marcke 
(182 7-1 890)  and  Rosa  Bonheur  have  gained 
considerable  reputation,  especially  in  the  United 
States. 

Not  animals  but  peasants  in  their  natural 
country  surroundings  appealed  to  Jean  Francois 
Millet  (1814-1875).  Years  of  deprivation  made 
his  art  somber.  He  did  not  habitually  see  the 
sunny  side  of  life,  and  often  seems  to  have  re- 
membered as  a  text  God's  awful  curse  to  Adam : 
"  Cursed  is  the  ground  for  thy  sake ;  in  sorrow 
shalt  thou  eat  of  it  all  the  days  of  thy  life.  .  .  . 
In  the  sweat  of  thy  face  shalt  thou  eat  bread, 
till  thou  return  unto  the  ground."  He  entered 
as  intimately  into  the  personalities  of  the  hard- 
working peasants  as  Corot  had  entered  into  the 
mysteries  of  nature,  and  knew  so  well  how  to 
combine  his  farmers  and  laboring  men  with  the 
stretches  of  landscape  about  Barbizon  that  he 
deserves  a  place  by  the  side  of  Corot.  Visions 
of  beauty  that  came  to  the  latter  passed  him  by 
unnoticed.    Often  his    subjects  are  ugly,  but  he 


x 


FRENCH  PAINTING  27 

always  surrounded  them  with  the  charm  which 
is  born  of  sympathy  and  of  intimate  knowledge. 

Less  true,  and  consequently  less  forceful,  are 

the  peasant  pictures  of  Jules  Breton  (1827 ). 

He,  too,  is  a  fine  painter,  but  he  seems  unable 
to  penetrate  below  the  surface.  His  peasants 
are  of  the  kind  which  one  popularly  accepts  as 
inhabiting  the  country.  They  are  illustrations 
of  conventional  ideas,  but  they  lack  the  spon- 
taneous pathos  of  the  work  of  Millet. 

With  Edouard  Manet  (183 3-1883)  begins  an 
entirely  new  movement  of  art,  the  tenets  of 
which  are  summed  up  by  Gensel  as  follows: 
"  Things  should  be  represented  not  as  experi- 
ence teaches  us  they  are  but  as  they  appear  to 
the  eye  of  the  painter.  All  colors  in  nature  are 
bright ;  even  the  shadows  are  not  black,  for  they 
are  only  of  lower  tints.  Space  illusions  are  pro- 
duced by  delicately  graded  tones,  since  the  air 
which  intervenes  between  the  spectator  and  a 
certain  object  changes  the  intensity  of  a  color. 
Things  should  be  painted  where  they  are;  land- 
scapes, therefore,  should  be  painted  out  of  doors 
exclusively.    Life  is  picturesque." 


28  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

When  Manet  exhibited  his  first  canvases 
painted  in  accordance  with  this  creed  people 
stood  aghast.  Their  eyes  were  offended  by 
the  unaccustomed  brightness  of  tones,  by  the 
absence  of  deep  shadows,  and  by  the  attention 
bestowed  on  the  effects  of  light  to  the  exclusion 
of  many  other  qualities  which  they  had  hereto- 
fore admired. 

The  adherents  of  this  style  of  painting  have 
been  reviled  as  no  painters  have  ever  been 
before.  But  with  the  fervor  of  martyrs  they 
have  persevered,  and  certainly  have  taught  that 
air  and  light  deserve  to  be  painted  just  as  much 
as  men,  beasts,  and  scenery.  The  mistake  which 
many  Impressionists  have  made  is  that  they 
believed  air  and  light  were  the  only  worthy 
subjects.  In  consequence  they  have  been  tempted 
to  try  experiments  which  have  been  inartistic 
and  pedantic.  The  greatest  of  them,  however, 
have  achieved  notable  success  with  their  new 
technique ;    and  over   all   towers    Claude   Monet 

(1840 ),   who    still    astonishes    all    the   world 

with  his  beautiful  landscapes.  The  subject  counts 
for  little,  since  air  and  light  ennoble  everything. 


FRENCH  PAINTING  29 

He  delights  in  catching  the  various  moods  of 
the  hours  of  the  day,  often  rendering  the  same 
subjects  as  they  appear  to  him  in  the  morning, 
at  noon,  and  when  the  shadows  begin  to  lengthen. 
There  is  an  atmosphere  in  his  pictures  which  is 
entirely  due  to  the  combination  of  colors,  and  has 
nothing  to  do  with  the  objects  to  which  these 
colors  happen  to  be  attached.  However  light  and 
fleeting  the  shadow  may  be  that  darkens  a  certain 
spot,  Monet  catches  it.  His  eye  is  quick,  sensitive, 
and  wonderfully  accurate.  His  color  is  very  gay, 
and  to  enjoy  his  work  one  must  be  familiar  with 
it.  A  single  Monet  in  a  gallery  of  other  masters 
is  a  distressing  discord. 

While  Monet  paints  landscapes,  Edgar  Degas 

(1834 ),  by  means  of  the  new  technique,  puts 

nude  women  on  canvas  with  uncompromising 
accuracy.  He  sees  only  their  form;  their  soul 
life  does  not  interest  him,  for  he  cannot  see  it 
with  his  physical  eye,  and  his  soul  seems  to  have 
been  created  blind.  The  same,  unfortunately, 
should  be  said  of  many  modern  men. 

Practically  all  subsequent  artists  have  learned 
much  from  the  technique  of  the  Impressionists, 


30  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

however  varied  may  be  their  interest  in  the  spheres 
of  life  whence  they  draw  their  inspiration. 

Jules  Bastien- Lepage  (i 848-1 884)  painted  peas- 
ant pictures  a  la  Millet,  but  with  the  new  tech- 
nique; Leon  Lhermitte  (1844 )  did  much  the 

same,  while  Pascal  Adolphe  Dagnan-Bouveret 

(1852 ),  beginning  with  genre  scenes,  is  the 

only  one  of  all  the  men  who  are  more  or 
less  closely  identified  with  Impressionism,  who 
developed  into  a  great  painter  of  religious 
subjects. 

Giovanni  Boldini  (1844 ),  an  Italian  living 

in  Paris,  is  one  of  the  most  charming  portrait 
painters  of  high  life,  and  Jean  Francois  Raffaeli 

(1850 )   one  of  the  most  spirited  portrayers 

of  views  of  Paris  and  of  cosmopolitan  types. 

All  these  men  and  many  more  have  boldly 
applied  what  is  best  in  Impressionism  to  their 
own  art,  and  have  taken  good  care  not  to  offend 
the  public  taste  with  the  excesses  which  the  Im- 
pressionists themselves  have  often  committed. 

With  few  exceptions  the  trend  of  French  art 
in  the  nineteenth  century  kept  step  with  the 
rapidly   developing    accuracy   of    human    vision. 


o 
C       fi 


ft       '43 

£      .5 


FRENCH  PAINTING  31 

But  people  do  not  always  wish  to  see;  some- 
times they  want,  or  at  least  should  want,  to 
dream.  In  Pierre  Puvis  de  Chavannes  (1824- 
1898)  they  have  an  artist  whose  work  satisfies 
this  need.  In  viewing  his  pictures  one  receives 
the  same  impressions  of  a  divinely  pure  and 
blessed  world  which  the  sacred  pictures  of  the 
great  Italians  used  to  produce.  In  the  hurry  of  a 
busy  life  Chavannes  causes  one  to  stop  awhile 
and  dream  and  feel.  He  has  achieved  this  with 
the  noble  simplicity  of  his  conceptions,  and  tech- 
nically with  the  long  sweeping  lines  and  light 
colors  which  soothe  the  eye.  Most  of  his  pictures 
are  symbolic,  but  they  are  never  frostily  allegoric 
like  the  pictures  of  the  later  Classicists.  They 
are  readily  understood  and  need  no  learned  com- 
mentary. 

Gustave  Moreau  (1826- 1898)  worked  not  un- 
like Puvis  de  Chavannes,  but  he  lacked  his 
wholesomeness.  Chavannes  takes  one  to  the 
Elysian  Fields,  Moreau  to  the  Mountain  of 
Venus.  Jean  Charles  Cazin  (1841-1901),  on  the 
other  hand,  surrounded  actual  landscapes  with 
melancholy    charm,    and    not    rarely    introduced 


32  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

figures  which  were  suggestive  of  sadness.  Eugene 

Carri^ere  (1849 )   and   Edmoiid  Aman-Jean 

(1856 )    drew    a    veil    over    actuality,    thus 

offering  plenty  of  food  for  speculative  contem- 
plation. Adolph  Monticelli  (1824- 1886)  was  a 
dreamy  and  tender  successor  of  Diaz  of  the 
Barbizon  days,  while  Paul  Albert  Besnard 
(1849 )  drew  very  one-sided  but  singu- 
larly impressive  conclusions  from  the  move- 
ment of  the  Impressionists.  Besnard  has  been 
called  a  luminist.  Past  master  of  the  art  of 
color,  he  has  solved  some  of  the  most  mys- 
teriously beautiful  problems  of  light,  such  as 
the  interchange  of  the  rays  of  the  moon  with 
those  of  a  street  lamp.  His  interiors  are  full 
of  delightful  effects  of  light,  and  his  portraits 
of  women  suggestive  of  a  fairy  world. 

To  pass  in  review,  even  briefly,  the  achieve- 
ments of  the  French  painters  in  the  nineteenth 
century  means  coming  in  contact  with  every 
branch  of  modern  art.  In  every  movement  a 
Frenchman  of  genius  was  the  leader.  Perfection 
of  technique  seemed  to  be  born  with  them.  It  is 
natural,  therefore,  that  all   nations  should  have 


FRENCH  PAINTING  33 

come  to  them  to  learn.  Unfortunately,  however, 
many  painters  have  left  them  impressed  only 
with  their  technical  versatility,  so  that  people  at 
large  have  not  rarely  considered  French  art  to 
be  an  unscrupulous  exercise  of  manual  dexterity. 
If  in  recent  years  the  French  influence  has  been 
less  distinctly  felt,  for  instance,  in  America,  this 
is  due  to  the  growth  of  American  art,  which  is 
able  to  stand  on  her  own  feet,  and  not  to  any 
diminution  of  the  worth  of  French  painting. 


CHAPTER   II 

GERMAN   PAINTING 

If  it  is  generally  true  that  one  fails  to  under- 
stand the  art  of  a  people  unless  one  readily  enters 
into  its  spirit,  this  is  conspicuously  so  with  mod- 
ern German  art.  American  standards  are  almost 
exclusively  French.  We  sympathize  with  the  aims 
of  French  artists,  and  rank  a  picture  by  the  evi- 
dence which  it  gives  of  endeavors  along  these 
lines.  We  even  persist  in  doing  so,  notwithstand- 
ing we  have  learned  that  the  meager  means  at 
the  disposal  of  a  painter  prevent  him  from  doing 
justice  to  more  than  one  point  of  view.  This  real- 
ization should  make  us  charitable,  and  eager  to 
study  the  works  of  those  whose  aims  are  different 
from  our  own.  To  study  them  is  the  more  neces- 
sary since  our  own  point  of  view  becomes  more 
clearly  defined  when  it  is  compared  with  that  of 
other  people. 

Subject  and  technique  are  the  two  notable 
factors  in  a  picture.    The  artist  may  place  the 

34 


2 

2    § 


—      S- 

§    5 


c  c  c  c  c 

c  c  c  r  c 

C   C    <_    (   c 


■t    C    f    c 


«■  »   . . 


GERMAN  PAINTING  35 

emphasis  on  both  alike,  or  on  one  to  the  detriment 
of  the  other.  Broad  classifications  are  not  always 
helpful,  but  in  the  case  of  most  German  artists 
of  the  nineteenth  century  it  may  be  said  that,  in 
contrast  to  their  French  contemporaries,  they  were 
concerned  with  what  they  should  paint  and  not 
how  they  should  paint  it,  the  latter  question  inter- 
esting them  only  in  so  far  as  it  is  impossible  to  do 
anything  without  a  certain  amount  of  technique. 
"A  painter  should  know  how  to  paint,"  King 
Louis  of  Bavaria  exclaimed  in  disgust  when  his 
protege,  Cornelius,  too  glaringly  disregarded  the 
how  of  his  art. 

As  time  advanced  greater  emphasis  was  natu- 
rally placed,  even  in  Germany,  on  the  perfection 
of  the  technical  side  of  painting;  but  the  strong 
undercurrent  of  the  importance  of  a  worthy  sub- 
ject did  not  disappear.  There  may,  of  course,  be 
an  honest  difference  of  opinion  as  to  what  consti- 
tutes a  worthy  subject,  and  in  the  lighter  vein  of 
art  the  character  of  the  people  to  whom  it  is 
meant  to  appeal  must  be  considered. 

To  disapprove  of  the  German  technique  and 
to   condemn   the    German    subject   because   the 


36  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

American  mind  finds  no  satisfaction  in  it,  is  ob- 
viously unjust.  Many  Americans  have  been  bored 
by  Punch  because  their  sense  of  humor  demanded 
other  jokes  and  sallies  than  the  English  paper 
contained,  and  have,  after  an  acquaintance  with 
the  English  people,  learned  to  appreciate  as  funny 
what  formerly  they  called  silly  and  meaningless. 
With  many  people  the  pleasure  in  little  things  is 
as  keen  as  the  delight  in  great  things  is  with 
others ;  and  the  appeal  to  the  former  is  fully  as 
legitimate  as  that  to  the  latter.  To  disapprove 
of  the  endeavors  of  an  artist  who  is  pleased 
with  little  things  simply  because  we  ourselves 
need  more  powerful  ideas  to  arouse  our  emo- 
tions, is  unjust. 

The  German  people  as  a  whole,  especially  of  a 
generation  ago,  had  the  gift  of  ennobling  with 
proper  sentiment  the  small  conditions  under 
which  they  lived.  Some  of  their  great  favorites 
were  artists  who  understood  this  faculty.  "  I 
know,"  said  Ludwig  Richter,  "  what  art  is  and 
what  are  her  demands.  I  delight  in  her  many 
gradations  and  directions,  I  know  her  errors  and 
dangerous    side    tracks,    and    I    am    happy   and 


GERMAN  PAINTING  37 

content  with  the  little  corner  where  my  place  is 
ordained  to  be."  Shall  we  condemn  the  work  of 
such  a  man  because  he  has  no  message  for  us, 
and  sneer  at  the  thousands  of  people  who  have 
understood  him  ? 

A  more  broad-minded  attitude  toward  Richter, 
and  the  many  men  who  have  worked  like  him, 
than  is  customary  to-day  will  dispose  of  much 
unjust  criticism  of  German  art. 

Characteristic  of  another  class  of  artists  who 
are  much  misunderstood  are  Anselm  Feuerbach 
and  Friedrich  Overbeck.  The  former  wrote,  after 
a  visit  to  Florence,  these  words :  "  My  future  path 
stood  before  me  clearly.  I  seemed  thus  far  to  have 
painted  only  with  my  hands.  Suddenly  I  had 
come  to  be  the  possessor  also  of  a  living  soul." 
And  Overbeck  said,  "  My  art  is  like  a  harp  on 
which  I  desire  at  all  times  to  sound  psalms  in  the 
honor  of  God."  Different  as  these  two  men  were, 
the  one  from  the  other,  they  were  alike  in  their 
belief  that  a  great  artist  is  not  only  a  technician 
but  also,  and  above  everything  else,  a  noble  man. 
The  justice  of  their  position  will  not  be  denied, 
and  it  will  be  granted  that  if  we  call  neither  of 


38  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

them  masters  of  painting  because  they  were  lack- 
ing in  skill,  fairness  demands  that  we  do  not  rank 
them  lower  than  those  of  our  own  artists  who 
have  technical  skill  but  fail  to  give  indications  of 
nobility  of  conception. 

In  recent  years  a  school  of  open-air  (plein  air) 
painters  has  risen  in  Germany, —  the  so-called  Im- 
pressionists, or,  as  they  are  better  known,  Seces- 
sionists, because  since  1883  they  have  withdrawn 
from  participation  in  official  exhibitions.  None  of 
their  works,  unfortunately,  were  seen  in  St.  Louis 
in  1904  because  of  the  antagonistic  attitude  of  the 
government.  Their  point  of  view  is  very  much 
akin  to  that  prevalent  in  America,  so  that  an  ex- 
hibition of  their  paintings  would  have  done  much 
to  increase  the  American  estimate  of  German  art. 

The  classic  enthusiasm  kindled  among  German 
artists  in  the  eighteenth  century  by  Carstens  and 
Mengs  continued  in  the  early  nineteenth  century 
with  Genelli,  Preller,  and  Rottmann,  all  of  whom 
sought  inspiration  in  the  study  of  the  antique. 

Genelli  (1798 -1868)  was  the  only  one  of  this 
trio  who  was  not  interested  in  landscapes.    His 


o   o 

H 

H 

o 


C    OC  c    C    4 


GERMAN  PAINTING  39 

forte  was  the  human  figure,  especially  in  motion. 
In  the  best  works  by  Preller  (1804- 18 78)  the 
figures  are  only  insignificant  parts  of  the  picture. 
Often  they  are  disturbing,  for  Preller  did  not 
know  how  to  make  them  necessary  to  his  com- 
positions. He  was  a  man  of  vivid  imagination, 
who  in  his  mind  peopled  the  rocks  and  coasts 
which  he  studied  on  a  journey  to  Naples,  and 
drew  from  them  his  famous  illustrations  to  the 
Odyssey,  Rottmann  (1 797-1850)  was  the  greatest 
of  the  heroic  landscapists,  but  he  also  suffered  at 
times  from  the  erroneous  notion  that  a  landscape 
without  figures  cannot  arouse  in  the  spectator 
proper  emotions.  Without  being  familiar  with 
the  much  later  school  of  open-air  artists,  he 
delighted  in  phases  of  nature  which  are  charac- 
teristic of  them,  —  sunsets,  storms,  and  moon- 
light. With  him  they  were  means  of  appealing  to 
the  emotions,  owing  to  the  things  which  they  sug- 
gested, —  the  grandeur  of  nature  and  the  mystery 
of  life.  The  open-air  painters  resort  to  them 
because  of  the  studies  in  light  and  shade  which 
they  enable  them  to  make,  and  the  resulting 
color  schemes. 


40  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

In  all  their  works  the  German  Classicists  are 
clearly  distinguished  from  their  contemporary 
Frenchmen  known  by  the  same  name.  Both 
received  their  inspiration  from  the  antique,  but 
while  the  Germans  endeavored  to  sink  them- 
selves into  the  spirit  of  antiquity,  the  Frenchmen 
learned  from  ancient  art  their  fine  technique. 
With  them  it  was  the  how,  with  the  Germans 
the  what,  that  mattered  most. 

There  is  a  strong  similarity  of  aim  between  the 
German  Classicists  and  those  other  Germans  who 
did  not  go  quite  so  far  back  for  their  inspiration, 
but  sought  it  in  the  Middle  Ages.  These  men  are 
known  as  Romanticists,  and  since  their  leaders 
were  deeply  religious  men,  most  of  them  Roman 
Catholics  who  loved  to  tell  the  story  of  Christ, 
they  are  also  called  Nazarenes. 

The  best  representative  of  the  Nazarenes  was 
Overbeck  (1789-1869)  who  lived  for  years  together 
with  a  few  friends  in  the  recently  abandoned 
monaster^7  of  San  Isidore  near  Rome.  He  found 
his  masters  in  the  great  men  of  the  early  Italian 
Renaissance,  being  especially  fond  of  Signorelli 
and  Masaccio.    Raphael  was  not  appreciated  by 


GERMAN  PAINTING  4 1 

the  Nazarenes,  for  in  his  works  they  detected 
signs  of  the  uninspired  skilled  technician,  whom 
they  were  wont  to  call  an  artisan  rather  than  an 
artist.  Their  attitude  in  this  respect  is  pardon- 
able, for  they  had  to  combat  the  traditional  art 
tendencies  which  were  based  on  skill  alone. 

In  the  pursuit  of  their  studies  it  was  natural 
that  Overbeck  and  his  friends  should  endeavor 
to  revive  the  technique  of  their  early  predeces- 
sors and  begin  to  paint  again  alfresco.  The  man 
who  did  most  to  introduce  this  technique  into 
Germany  was  Cornelius  (1 783-1867),  who,  start- 
ing as  a  Classicist,  had  been  drawn  into  the  circle 
of  Overbeck,  and  later,  as  director  of  the  acad- 
emies in  Dusseldorf  and  still  later  in  Munich,  had 
made  himself  a  power  in  his  native  land. 

Cornelius  was  a  great  man  but  not  a  great 
painter.  Fighting  against  those  who  believed  skill 
to  be  the  alpha  and  omega  of  art,  he  went  to  the 
other  extreme  and  may  be  said  to  have  actually 
neglected  it.  Moreover,  he  did  not  know  how  to 
confine  himself  to  those  subjects  which  can  prop- 
erly be  treated  in  painting,  and  consequently  failed 
in  almost  all  of  his  undertakings.    His  influence, 


42  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

however,  as  the  exponent  of  the  importance  of  mat- 
ter versus  manner  was  felt  in  Germany  for  many 
decades,  and  has  not  yet  entirely  disappeared. 

That  neither  Overbeck  nor  Cornelius  nor  any 
of  their  friends  and  followers  developed  a  color 
scheme  as  bright  and  pleasing  as  that  of  the 
French  Romanticists  is  quite  natural,  for  the  only 
reason  why  the  latter  had  turned  to  the  study  of 
an  ideal  past  was  that  its  subjects  suggested  gay 
colors.  Nor  was  a  great  step  in  advance  along 
these  lines  to  be  taken  by  the  immediate  follow- 
ers of  the  Nazarenes. 

The  failure  of  Cornelius  made  the  success  of 
his  pupil,  Wilhelm  von  Kaulbach  (i 805-1 847), 
appear  to  great  advantage.  This  man  was  pre- 
eminently an  executing  genius,  but  he  lacked  the 
deep  spirituality  of  the  other  great  Nazarenes. 
He  composed  well  and  worked  with  ease.  His 
drawing  was  exquisite  and  his  coloring  pleasing, 
although,  judged  by  standards  of  later  colorists, 
far  from  perfect. 

The  greatest  influence  on  the  development  of 
German  art  was  exerted  by  the  last  of  the  Naza- 
renes,  Wilhelm  von   Schadow   (1789 -186  2),  who 


f  »• 


C  O   ( 


GERMAN  PAINTING  43 

succeeded  Cornelius  as  director  of  the  academy  in 
Dusseldorf.  Himself  a  man  of  many  and  noble 
ideas,  he  conceived  his  duty  as  teacher  to  be  to 
give  to  his  pupils  a  sound  foundation  in  tech- 
nique, trusting  that  if  they  had  this  they  would 
become  great  artists,  provided  they  had  the  proper 
personality.  Without  it  he  knew  that  not  even 
the  most  conspicuous  natural  gifts  would  make 
them  achieve  successes.  Schadow  never  lost  his 
faith  in  the  essential  requirement  for  a  great  art- 
ist, —  a  noble  character,  —  but  he  wisely  distin- 
guished between  the  studio  of  an  artist  and  an 
art  school.  In  the  latter  emphasis  should  be 
placed  on  the  how ;  in  the  former  the  what  should 
receive  at  least  equal  consideration. 

To-day,  after  generations  of  remarkable  growth 
everywhere,  the  works  of  the  Dusseldorf  school, 
which  have  since  been  improved  upon  in  most 
particulars,  are  no  longer  held  to  be  masterpieces. 
The  importance  of  Dusseldorf,  however,  both  for 
Germany  and  America,  —  for  many  of  the  earlier 
Americans  studied  there  rather  than  in  France, 
—  is  so  firmly  established  that  no  amount  of 
ingratitude  can  shake  it. 


44  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

Three  classes  of  pictures  were  especially  culti- 
vated in  Diisseldorf,  —  landscapes,  genre  pieces, 
and  histori co-romantic  incidents.    Andreas  Achen- 

bach  (1815 )   and  Lessing  (1808 -1880)   were 

the  best  landscape  painters,  the  latter  excelling 
also  in  historic  pictures,  notably  in  a  series  of 
incidents  from  the  life  of  Huss.  The  most  popu- 
lar genre  painter  was  Knaus.  These  three  men 
and  their  many  friends  and  followers  were  char- 
acterized by  seriousness  of  purpose,  faithfulness 
of  execution,  and  considerable  skill.  The  prob- 
lems, however,  which  had  already  begun  to  stir 
France — color,  and  light  and  shade,  and  the  inti- 
mate relationship  between  the  artist  and  the  life 
which  he  portrays  —  were  unknown  to  them,  ex- 
cept possibly  Adolph  Schreyer  (1 828-1 899).  He 
was  born  in  Frankfort,  but  for  all  practical  pur- 
poses might  be  classed  with  the  later  French 
Romanticists.  He  is  best  known  for  his  spirited 
pictures  of  horsemen, in  which  is  shown  the  under- 
lying keynote  of  all  his  work, — wonderful  daring. 

The  same  was  true  of  the  rival  schools  in 
Berlin,  Hamburg,  Munich,  and  Vienna.  Every- 
where the  purpose  was  good  and  the  skill  more 


GERMAN  PAINTING  45 

or  less  adequate,  but  the  great  causes  in  the  serv- 
ice of  which  later  artists  placed  their  endeavors 
had  not  yet  appeared.  Blechen  (1798- 1840)  in 
Berlin  was  perhaps  an  exception,  for  he  seems  to 
have  had  a  natural  sense  for  the  values  of  colors. 
He  alone,  for  instance,  at  that  early  date,  con- 
ceived as  artistically  beautiful  the  motive  of  thin 
blue  smoke  escaping  from  a  factory  chimney  into 
the  soft  air  of  evening. 

Early  in  the  forties  a  remarkable  change  took 
place.  The  eyes  of  the  people  were  opened  to 
the  charm  of  color  after  they  —  the  countrymen 
of  Holbein  —  had  been  insensible  to  it  for  cen- 
turies. In  1842,  when  two  Belgian  painters, 
Gallait  and  de  Biefve,  made  their  appearance 
in  Germany,  the  whole  country  went  wild  over 
them.  What  the  Germans  most  admired  in  them 
was  their  realism  in  composition  and  their  un- 
restricted use  of  pronounced  colors.  That  their 
realism,  in  fact,  was  more  theatrical  than  true, 
and  their  coloring  void  of  the  more  delicate 
shadings,  did  not  disturb  their  admirers;  for 
from  the  technical  point  of  view  the  Germans 
had  seen  nothing  equally  perfect.   The  result  was 


46  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

that  art  received  a  new  impetus.  Especially  in 
Munich  the  new  ideas  were  firmly  established, 
with  Piloty  (i 826-1 886)  as  the  pioneer  of  the 
movement.  But  Piloty,  as  was  natural  with  a 
man  who  sought  to  accomplish  a  definite  end 
with  a  new  technique,  did  not  avoid  showing 
his  intentions,  which  gave  to  his  pictures  the 
appearance  of  artificiality.  Every  detail  was  care- 
fully worked  out,  and  the  unity  of  the  whole 
consequently  neglected.  The  figures  were  posed 
for  effect,  just  as  they  are  on  the  stage,  and  the 
necessary  truth  of  actual  occurrences  was  forgot- 
ten. The  word  "  theatrical "  properly  describes 
many  of  the  pictures  of  the  Piloty  school. 

Makart  (1840- 1884)  was  the  most  gifted  pupil 
of  Piloty.  Surrounded  with  wealth  and  luxury, 
and  worshiped  almost  like  a  god  by  his  contem- 
poraries, he  poured  forth  with  almost  incredible 
velocity  the  most  sensuously  beautiful  symphonies 
of  color  that  had  ever  issued  from  the  brush  of  an 
artist.  For  values  in  the  modern  sense  of  the  word 
he  had  no  eye.  The  slow  and  thoughtful  art 
of  Whistler  he  would  not  have  understood.  His 
colors  were  many  and  rich  ;  they  were  meant  to 


Adolf  von  Menzel 

The  Round  Table  at  Sanssouci 


- 


GERMAN  PAINTING  47 

win  admiration  by  storm,  and  had  no  message  for 
those  who  love  to  think  and  dream  over  a  picture. 
Makart  died  a  young  man,  rushing  through  life, 
a  meteor  on  the  art  heaven  of  Germany.  And 
like  his  life  was  his  art.  "  Much  he  had  learned 
from  Titian,"  says  Professor  Gensel,  "and  more 
perhaps  from  Veronese,  but  he  lacked  the  essen- 
tial force  and  wholesomeness  of  either  of  these 
men." 

It  is  impossible  to  study  the  development  of 
painting  in  the  nineteenth  century  in  Germany 
without  feeling  convinced  that  at  some  time  men 
would  arise  to  combine  the  what  of  the  Classicists 
and  Romanticists  with  the  how  of  the  Diisseldorf 
and  Munich  schools.  These  men  actually  have 
arisen  in  the  great  quartet,  properly  called  the  Ger- 
man Individualists,  —  Bocklin,  Feuerbach,  Klin- 
ger,  and  Marees.  The  only  thing  that  binds  these 
men  together  is  their  general  attitude  toward 
art  and  the  allowances  which  they  make  to  indi- 
vidual preferences.  They  hated  Impressionism, — 
"transcribing  nature  as  you  pass  along,"  —  and 
were  equally  convinced  with  Carstens  that  "art 
is  a  speech  of  emotions.    Where  expression  in 


48  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

words  fails,  art  begins."  And  they  would  also 
have  subscribed  to  the  definition  of  art  as  "  nature 
seen  through  a  temperament,"  provided  nature 
were  made  to  include  both  the  visible  and  the 
invisible.  In  their  selection  and  interpretation 
of  subjects  and  in  their  mode  of  execution  they 
were  strangely  unlike. 

Feuerbach  (i  829-1 880)  preferred  the  antique. 
His  pictures  of  ancient  people,  however,  are  the 
result  of  an  emotional  rather  than  of  an  intellec- 
tual study.  His  masterpiece  is  a  picture  of  Iphi- 
genia  seated  not  far  from  the  sea,  "  her  yearning 
soul  in  search  of  Greece  and  home."  This  pic- 
ture is  good  because  the  artist  has  put  his  whole 
soul  into  it,  and  because  the  soberness  of  his 
style  is  in  perfect  accord  with  the  simplicity  of 
his  subject. 

Feuerbach  was  somewhat  affected  with  Welt- 
schmerz,  a  painful  yearning  for  things  unknown. 
It  showed  in  all  his  work  and  introduced  an  un- 
real element  into  his  pictures,  unless  his  subjects 
lent  themselves  to  such  an  interpretation,  as  for 
instance  Iphigenia.  His  coloring,  never  gay,  grew 
thinner  and  gloomier  as  years  advanced,  and  he 


GERMAN  PAINTING  49 

failed  to  gain  the  approval  of  the  people.  He 
became  discouraged,  for  he  knew  that  his  com- 
positions were  of  greater  worth  than  those  of  the 
Munich  colorists  which  yet  were  greeted  every- 
where with  bursts  of  admiration. 

Unlike  Feuerbach,  who  died  young,  Bocklin 
(182 7-1 901)  lived  to  see  his  art  crowned  with 
material  success.  Ridiculed  at  first,  he  finally  re- 
ceived indiscriminate  praise  from  high  and  low. 
He  may  be  likened  to  a  teller  of  fairy  tales.  His 
subjects  were  not  based  on  facts,  and  therefore 
could  not  be  painted  as  such. 

To  claim  Bocklin  as  antique  in  spirit  may  at 
first  seem  to  be  absurd.  His  fanciful  coloring,  his 
unreal  figures,  his  heavy  forms,  all  seem  to  prove 
him  the  most  modern  of  the  moderns.  And  yet, 
if  one  goes  deeper  and  sees  how  for  him  every 
tree  had  its  spirit  of  life,  how  the  breakers  of  the 
sea  suggested  a  woman  playing  her  harp,  and  how 
the  silence  of  the  woods  at  eventide  was  trans- 
lated by  him  into  a  strange  figure  on  a  strange 
animal  making  its  way  alone  through  the  forest, 
one  realizes  that  here  one  has  something  akin  to 
that  Greek  spirit  which  peopled  the  trees  and 


50  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

rivers  and  glens  with  nymphs  and  demigods,  and 
could  not  think  of  nature  apart  from  such  crea- 
tions of  fancy. 

Bocklin  was  a  careful  and  painstaking  painter. 
He  had  his  fairy  tales  well  thought  out  before  he 
attempted  to  paint  them.  Asked  what  was  the 
most  difficult  part  of  his  art,  he  replied,  "  Not  to 
lose  pleasure  in  painting."  He  knew  the  impor- 
tance of  technique,  without  which  he  could  not 
express  himself,  but  he  firmly  believed  that  even 
the  best  technique  is  of  no  account  if  the  artist 
has  no  clearly  defined  ideas  ready  for  expression. 

Delicate  eyes  are  often  offended  by  his  harsh 
color  schemes,  in  which  pronounced  blues  and 
greens  predominate,  while  truth  to  the  appear- 
ances of  things  is  all  but  unknown.  To  the 
objector  who  exclaims,  "  Who  ever  saw  such 
trees  ?  "  Bocklin  would  have  answered,  "  I !  I  saw 
them  in  a  vision " ;  and  he  might  have  added, 
"  Come  with  me  to  my  Isle  of  the  Blessed,  and 
you,  too,  will  see  them." 

Max  Klinger  (1857 ),  the  youngest  of  the 

great  Individualists,  is  not  unlike  Bocklin  in 
some  of   his  works.    But   he    is   less  consistent 


GERMAN  PAINTING  51 

and  more  versatile.  While  Bocklin  has  visions, 
Klinger  has  hallucinations.  A  more  gruesome 
picture  than  his  "  Mother  and  Child  "  has  never 
been  sketched;  but  it  is  fascinating.  One  feels 
like  the  old  Greek,  of  whom  Plato  writes,  who, 
passing  the  corpses  of  shipwrecked  mariners,  was 
filled  with  awe  and  hurried  along ;  but  after  a  few 
steps  was  forced  to  turn  back  against  the  will  of  his 
nobler  self,  and,  opening  wide  his  eyes,  shouted  to 
them  angrily,  "  There,  you  brutes,  see  your  fill." 

Klinger  is  fond  of  solving  technical  problems, 
but  in  his  larger  compositions  he  is  not  free 
from  technical  defects.  Being  also  a  sculptor,  he 
delights  in  well-defined  bodies,  and  although  his 
modeling  is  good,  he  often  fails  to  be  convincing. 
In  this  respect  he  is  surpassed  by  Hans  von 
Mar'ees  (1 837-1 887),  whose  figures  detach  them- 
selves easily  from  the  background  and  seem  to  be 
standing  free  in  space.  "  They  mean  nothing," 
Professor  Gensel  says,  "do  not  intend  to  mean 
anything,  and  are  satisfied  with  merely  being." 
Their  very  existence,  however,  generally  nude  in 
simple  landscapes,  gives  expression  to  the  artistic 
intentions  of   Marees.    He  never  tried  to  copy 


52  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

actual  scenes  of  nature  or  events  from  life.  That 
would  have  been  prose ;  he  was  a  poet. 

The  pioneer  Realist  of  Germany  was  Leibl 
(1S46-1900),  whose  maxim  seems  to  have  been 
that  creations  of  fancy  cannot  be  so  valuable  as 
transcripts  from  life,  for  life  properly  studied  is 
more  interesting  than  any  dreams  about  it.  He 
was  a  man  of  considerable  skill  within  certain 
limits,  which  he  was  wise  enough  not  to  trans- 
gress. "  Figures  at  rest  he  can  paint,"  said  a  rival 
of  him;  "but  try  him  on  moving  figures  and  you 
will  see  his  inferior  skill."  But  Leibl  continued 
to  paint  quiet  figures  and  to  achieve  success  with 
them.  He  is  a  Realist  in  the  best  sense  of  the 
word,  not  copying  every  detail  as  he  saw  it,  but 
centering  his  attention  on  what  should  give  the 
spectator  the  impression  of  the  original. 

A  greater  man  than  Leibl  was  Menzel  (1815- 
1904),  of  whom  it  has  been  said  that  he  tried  to 
do  only  what  he  could  do,  and  that  he  could  do 
everything.  He  was  a  man  of  astonishing  versa- 
tility, who  achieved  success  in  almost  ever}-  branch 
of  drawing  and  painting.  He  had  an  eye  to  details 
and  built  his  pictures  around  those  which  were 


GERMAN  PAINTING  53 

important.  The  accuracy  of  his  apperceptions 
was  equaled  only  by  that  of  his  brush,  while  both 
stood  unrivaled.  His  early  works  on  the  life  of 
Frederick  the  Great  were  characterized  by  remark- 
able historical  fidelity  coupled  with  lifelikeness 
in  the  figures,  and  were  painted  in  a  style  that 
seemed  to  foreshadow  the  technique  of  the  later 
illusionists.  As  he  grew  older  his  coloring  became 
richer,  and  he  solved  many  interesting  problems 
of  light  and  shade  years  before  similar  problems 
began  to  interest  the  French  Impressionists,  with 
an  occasional  excursion  into  other  fields.  One 
of  his  madonna  pictures  has  gained  deserved 
popularity.  Toward  the  end  his  works  were 
often  sketchy  in  contrast  to  the  precision  of  his 
earlier  creations,  but  even  in  these  late  pictures 
he  showed  that  he  had  not  lost  the  power  of 
observing  essentials. 

Interest  in  everything  was  a  notable  factor  of 
his  character.  Everywhere  he  found  desirable 
subjects  for  his  compositions,  but  while  his  Ger- 
man admirers  maintain  that  his  selections  were 
invariably  wise,  less  biased  observers  believe  that 
he  was  not  always  successful.    His  great  picture 


54  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

of  the  Factory  Forge,  for  instance,  gave  him  the 
opportunity  of  bringing  order  out  of  a  seemingly 
hopeless  chaos  and  proving  himself  a  technician 
second  to  none,  but  gave  his  opponents  likewise 
the  chance  of  pointing  to  the  undesirability  of 
permitting  one's  delight  in  technical  difficulties 
to  determine  one's  choice  of  a  subject. 

Equally  as  great  as  Menzel,  but  only  in  a  nar- 
rowly circumscribed  field,  Franz  von  Lenbach 
(1836- 1 904)  vied  with  him  in  popular  favor.  He 
not  only  confined  himself  to  portraiture  but  was 
even  within  this  single  branch  of  art  restricted  to 
a  certain  mode  of  representation,  painting  only  the 
heads  and  treating  everything  else  as  unimpor- 
tant accessories.  In  his  younger  years  his  color 
rivaled  that  of  the  great  Venetians;  later,  how- 
ever, he  painted  only  in  browns.  His  women  still 
retained  gayer  colors,  but  they  are  not  his  mas- 
terpieces, although  some  of  them,  and  especially 
his  pictures  of  children,  are  exceedingly  charm- 
ing. His  men  have  made  his  reputation,  and 
with  them  he  will  live. 

Lenbach  is  a  psychologist.  He  read  character 
and  painted  it,  without  doing  it,  however,  any 


Franz  von  Lenbach 

Portrait  of  Mommsen 


GERMAN  PAINTING  55 

impersonal  justice.  In  his  pictures  one  does  not 
see  Bismarck  or  Moltke  or  Liszt,  but  Lenbach's 
Bismarck  and  Lenbach's  Moltke  and  Lenbach's 
Liszt.  His  point  of  view,  however,  is  always 
interesting,  so  that  his  pictures  are  gainers  rather 
than  losers.  There  may  be  better  painters  than 
he,  and  more  brilliant  men,  but  there  are  none 
who  equal  him  in  the  power  of  drawing  inefface- 
able images  of  well-known  personages.  If  one  has 
seen  a  portrait  by  Lenbach,  one  cannot  hence- 
forth think  of  that  man  in  any  other  way.  And 
this,  it  will  be  remembered,  is  the  same  praise 
that  was  bestowed  in  antiquity  on  the  Olympian 
Zeus  by  Pheidias. 

Unlike  Lenbach,  Friedrich  August  von  Kaul- 

bach  (1850 )  is  best  known  for  his  portraits 

of  women.  He  seems  to  worship  at  the  shrine  of 
womanly  beauty,  and  has  the  power  of  convinc- 
ing the  spectator  that  this  beauty  is  one  of  the 
best  and  noblest  forces  in  the  world. 

The  remaining  Realists  of  note  differ  each 
from  the  other  in  everything  except  their  desire 
to  paint  real  things  so  that  they  shall  seem  to 
be  real.   Anton  von  Werner  ( 1 843 )  selects  his 


56  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

subjects   from   the   modern    history   of    Prussia, 

Franz    Defregger    (1835 )    delights    in    the 

peasant  life  of  the  Tyrol,  Eduard  von  Gebhardt 

(1838 )  reconstructs  scenes  from  the   Bible 

and  fills  them  with  deep  feeling,  while  Munkdcsy 
(1846 -1 900),  whose  real  name  was  Michael  Lieb, 
selected  as  his  subjects  whatever  gave  him  the 
chance  of  displaying  his  dramatic  pathos  and 
remarkable  power  as  a  colorist. 

Many  of  the  so-called  Realists  had  been  actively 
engaged  in  solving  problems  of  color  and  light 
and  shade,  so  that  it  is  not  surprising  that  also  in 
Germany  men  should  have  drawn  the  natural 
inferences  which  the  French  painters  of  open  air 
had  drawn  before  them,  and  should  have  started 
the  school  of  the  so-called  Impressionists,  or,  as 
they  are  known  in  Germany,  Secessionists.    Max 

Liebermann  (1849 )  may  be  said  to  be  the 

father  of  the  movement.  At  present  the  list  of  the 
Secessionists  includes  the  names  of  many  excel- 
lent men.  There  is  Walter  Leistikow  ( 1 865- 1 908), 
who,  with  unparalleled  grandeur,  has  transcribed 
the  strong  and  singularly  impressive  scenery  of 
the   country   around    Berlin,    where    more    than 


GERMAN  PAINTING  57 

anywhere  else  the  help  which  man  can  render  to 
nature  is  apparent;  for  without  it  Berlin  would 
be  situated  in  a  desert  instead  of  being  able  to 
boast  of  one  of  the  loveliest  surroundings  of  any 
large  city.    In  the  selection  of  subjects  his  very 

opposite,  Franz  Skarbina  (1849 ),  rivals  the 

best  of  the  modern  luminists  in  rendering  mys- 
terious effects  of  light.  In  his  "  View  from  the 
Eiffel  Tower"  the  incredibly  beautiful  effect  of  the 
World's  Fair  at  night,  with  the  myriad  of  electric 
lights  forming  a  sea  of  prickling  incandescence, 
is  placed  before  the  spectator.  In  the  distance 
the  Trocadero  reaches  up  to  the  dark  dome  of 
heaven,  and  in  the  foreground  the  shadowy  fig- 
ure of  a  young  girl  appears,  who  is  seemingly 
oblivious  to  the  glorious  feast  to  the  eyes  spread 
before  her.  And  then  there  is  Franz  Stuck 
(1863 )»  witn  his  often  gruesome  and  fantas- 
tic pictures,  and   the  wholesome,  lovable  Hans 

Thorna  (1839 ),  who  has  been  called  the  most 

German  of  German  artists.  Technically  he  is 
possibly  the  weakest  of  all  the  well-known  Seces- 
sionists, but  he  has  the  gift  of  ennobling  his  art 
as  few  men  can.     His  range  of  subjects  is  large, 


58  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

from  fairy  tales  to  scenes  taken  directly  from  the 
life  of  the  people;  and  over  everything  there 
hovers  the  charm  of  nobility.  It  has  been  said 
of  Praxiteles  that  he  never  put  his  chisel  to  the 
block  but  that  the  little  god  of  love  was  peeping 
over  his  shoulder.  Thoma,  it  would  seem,  has  an 
equally  faithful  companion  in  the  guardian  angel 

of  the  German  race.    Fritz  von  Uhde  (1848 ), 

to  mention  only  one  more  of  this  group  of  men, 
is  best  known  for  his  religious  pictures.  He 
paints  peasants  as  they  are  to-day  and  places 
Christ  among  them.  By  bringing  the  person  of 
Christ  thus  close  to  us,  he  succeeds  in  giving  to 
his  pictures  at  the  same  time  spirituality  and 
reality,  such  as  are  unknown  in  earlier  paintings. 
Slightly  outside  the  more  intimate  circle  of  the 
Secessionists  a  great  many  men  have  learned  the 
valuable  lessons  which  this  movement  had  to 
teach,  and  have  thus  begun  to  bridge  the  chasm 
between  the  two  schools.  Arthur  Kampf 'of  Ber- 
lin (1864 )  has  won  success  largely  with  his 

decorative  paintings,  and  Carl  Marr  (1858 ), 

an  American  who  has  settled  in  Munich,  is  dis- 
tinguished for  his  delicate  madonnas. 


Copyright  by  Ginn  &  Company 


Fritz  vox  Uhde 

Christ  Teaching 


GERMAN  PAINTING  59 

Another  characteristic  of  the  Secessionists  is  a 
distinct  love  for  their  immediate  surroundings; 
or,  to  be  more  precise,  this  interest  in  scenes  at 
home  arose  almost  simultaneously  with  the  break 
that  occurred  between  the  adherents  of  the  old 
style  of  painting  and  the  young  enthusiasts. 
Formerly  artists  had  often  failed  to  see  the  beauty 
of  the  distinctly  German  landscape,  and  at  best 
had  rendered  what  was  grand  in  her  mountain 
regions.  But  now  they  began  to  feel  the  charm 
also  of  the  lowlands.  They  discovered,  in  fact, 
that  nature  spoke  her  infinite  message  every- 
where. Like  Corot  and  his  friends  at  Barbizon, 
several  German  artists  have  withdrawn  from  the 
hurry  of  city  life  and  have  established  colonies  in 
country  surroundings.  The  best  known  of  these 
colonies  is  that  at  Worpswede  near  Bremen,  where 

such  men  as  Mackensen  (1866 ),   Modersohn 

(1865 ),  and  Hans  am  Ende  are  the  leaders. 

The  richness  of  modern  German  art  is  one  of 
the  pleasantest  surprises  for  the  student.  Unshel- 
tered by  the  favor  of  the  court,  for  Emperor 
William  leans  more  toward  the  conventional,  the 
literal,  side  of  painting,  artists  everywhere  have 


60  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

placed  their  strength  at  the  service  of  all  worthy 
new  ideas,  and  by  their  genius  have  advanced 
not  a  few  of  them.  In  short,  the  art  of  painting 
in  Germany  has  never  been  in  such  good  hands 
as  it  is  to-day. 


CHAPTER  III 

BRITISH  PAINTING 

Standing  somewhat  outside  the  whirlpool  of 
European  political  history,  and  by  geographical 
position  compelled  to  go  her  own  way,  Great 
Britain  used  to  hold  a  unique  place  in  the  field 
of  art.  She  relied  almost  exclusively  on  foreign 
talent  down  to  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  but  showered  with  magnificent  honors 
those  great  artists  who  came  to  her.  When 
finally,  with  the  advent  of  Reynolds  and  Gains- 
borough, she  rose  to  a  place  of  independence, 
she  followed  no  contemporary's  lead,  but  proved 
herself  an  exclusive  aristocrat  in  most  things. 
France,  with  her  versatility,  was  democratic; 
Germany,  with  her  sentiment,  was  no  less  so; 
but  England,  with  her  poise,  was  preeminently 
the  land  where  refinement  reigned  not  as  an 
accident  but  as  a  prerequisite  of  art.  To  walk 
through  a  gallery  of  early  English  pictures  is 
like  visiting  with  high  nobility.    Nobility  is  not 

61 


62  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

always  cold;  it  has  its  emotions  just  as  other 
people  have  them,  but  it  shows  them  less.  One 
must  know  it  well  if  one  wants  to  understand 
it.  He  enjoys  Reynolds  and  Gainsborough  best 
who  is  able  to  grasp  their  essentially  aristocratic 
preferences. 

Another  point  of  difference  between  Great 
Britain  and  the  Continent  was  that  she  was 
hardly  touched  by  the  movement  of  the  Classi- 
cists. Her  art  continued,  without  a  break,  the 
traditions  of  the  artists  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, most  especially  those  of  men  who,  like 
Van  Dyck  and  Sir  Peter  Lely,  had  long  lived 
in  the  country,  and  whose  courtly  grace  was  the 
starting  point  of  the  new  national  art. 

British  art  has  never  seen  a  revolution  which 
aimed  to  dethrone  respected  ideals  for  the  sake 
of  inaugurating  an  age  of  freedom.  Whatever 
disturbances  she  has  experienced  were  occasioned 
by  those  who  preferred  to  make  new  ideals  para- 
mount. Coarseness  has  been  unknown  to  her. 
Her  painters  either  have  not  known  or  have 
passed  in  silence  the  gamut  of  powerful  pas- 
sions which  must  be  fought  by  those  who  make 


BRITISH  PAINTING  63 

their  way  through  life  unsheltered  by  worthy 
traditions. 

Many  of  her  painters,  moreover,  have  been 
thinkers,  preachers,  poets,  believing  in  the  dig- 
nity of  their  art  as  an  elevating,  instructive, 
and  guiding  force,  and  have  naturally  refrained 
from  making  of  it  a  tool  for  the  gratification  of 
the  senses. 

British  artists,  of  course,  have  also  painted 
some  pictures  which  do  not  agree  with  this  char- 
acterization, but  in  so  far  as  they  have  done  so, 
they  are  not  distinctly  British. 

The  history  of  British  painting  is  brief,  cover- 
ing only  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  years,  but 
it  can,  nevertheless,  be  divided  into  several 
periods.  The  first  is  the  age  of  Reynolds  and 
Gainsborough  and  their  immediate  successors, 
lasting  to  about  the  second  decade  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  The  second  is  a  period  of  stag- 
nant conventionalism  covering  only  about  twenty 
years;  this  was  rudely  disturbed  by  Mr.  Ruskin, 
and  was  quickly  superseded  by  the  third  period, 
which  was  dominated  by  the  Pre-Raphaelite 
Brotherhood.   This  brotherhood  also  was  of  short 


64  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

duration,  although  its  influence  lasted  through 
a  generation,  and  in  some  degree  is  felt  even 
to-day.  The  fourth  period  is  less  easily  defined. 
One  may  perhaps  call  it  one  of  individual  pref- 
erences, since  various  ideals  are  followed  by  the 
several  men.  A  fifth  period  will  doubtless  ap- 
pear more  clearly  to  future  art  historians  as 
having  had  its  origin  in  the  latter  years  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  and  having  emanated  from 
the  Scotch  school.  Here  figure  pieces  are  painted 
as  everywhere  in  Great  Britain,  but  landscapes 
are  raised  to  unwonted  predominance. 

Portrait  Painters 

Reynolds  and  Gainsborough  were  not  the  first 
Britishers  of  importance,  for  they  were  preceded 
by  William  Hogarth  (1697 -1764).  This  man  was 
a  satirist  whose  pictures  were  often  meant  to  flay 
existing  evils,  but  they  did  it  under  the  guise  of 
humorous  anecdotes.  This  satirical  humor  made 
Hogarth  popular,  so  popular,  indeed,  that  engrav- 
ings of  his  paintings  are  known  everywhere. 
Though  greatly  interested  in  his  subjects,  people 
have   overlooked    the    technical   beauties   of   his 


BRITISH  PAINTING  65 

work  and  have  been  apt  to  rank  him  far  below 
his  real  worth  as  a  painter.  The  careful  observer 
finds  in  his  pictures  bits  of  exquisite  color  and  a 
remarkably  delicate  touch.  His  compositions  are 
magnificently  grouped,  and  not  rarely  enriched 
with  a  very  fine  play  of  light  and  shade.  He 
also  painted  portraits,  showing  a  fine  artistic 
gift  in  this  line  of  work,  although  he  did  not 
approach  the  marvelous  successes  of  Reynolds 
or  Gainsborough. 

Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  (1 723-1 792)  is  generally 
regarded  as  the  greatest  English  painter.  His 
drawing  is  exquisite,  his  coloring  very  rich  and 
warm,  alluring,  and  suggestive  of  a  happy,  luxuri- 
ous state  of  well-being.  Before  his  pictures  one 
almost  breathes  the  scented  atmosphere  of  high 
society.  It  is,  however,  a  worthy  society ;  for  his 
people  are  Englishmen  of  the  type  who  have 
done  most  for  the  advancement  of  humanity. 
He  painted  good  likenesses,  and  yet  for  us  there 
is  such  a  strong  generic  resemblance  in  all  his 
works  that  it  is  easier  to  recognize  in  them  the 
conceptions  of  Reynolds  than  the  individuality 
of  his  sitters. 


66  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

He  was  elected  president  of  the  Academy 
when  still  a  young  man,  forty-five  years  of  age, 
and  remained  to  the  end  of  his  life  the  leader 
and  backbone  of  the  official  school  of  painting. 
He  was  also  an  author,  and  knew  how  to  enforce 
his  artistic  convictions  with  vigorous  speech. 

Unlike  Reynolds,  Thomas  Gainsborough  (1727- 
1788)  preserved  through  life  a  position  of  inde- 
pendence. The  stamp  of  officialism  was  never 
placed  on  his  work;  and  not  rarely  did  he  paint 
with  the  avowed  purpose  of  contravening  a 
dictum  of  the  Royal  Academy.  His  famous 
"  Blue  Boy  "  owes  its  origin  to  his  desire  of  show- 
ing that  blue  could  be  made  the  leading  color  of 
a  composition.  In  the  execution  of  this  picture, 
however,  blue  is  in  reality  a  very  subordinate 
color,  since  the  texture  of  the  cloth,  which  the 
spectator  understands  to  be  blue,  shimmers  in  a 
variety  of  hues  under  the  peculiar  light  which  is 
shed  about  the  figure. 

Quoting  often  a  famous  expression  of  Kneller 
to  the  effect  that  pictures  are  not  made  to  be 
smelled  at,  Gainsborough  introduced  a  feathery, 
volatile  application  of  color  which  gives  to  his 


Thomas  Gainsborough 

The  Blue  Bov 


BRITISH  PAINTING  67 

compositions  both  distinction  and  suggestiveness. 
It  also  disguises  a  somewhat  uncertain  touch  of 
drawing,  —  uncertain,  however,  only  in  the  sense 
in  which  the  outlines  of  a  cloud  are  uncertain, 
because  human  eyes  are  rarely  quick  enough  to 
catch  them  distinctly. 

He  painted  landscapes  comparatively  rarely, 
but  here  also  he  showed  himself  a  master.  Lest 
this  additional  accomplishment  of  his  be  con- 
strued into  a  claim  to  superiority  over  Rey- 
nolds, it  must  be  remembered  that  this  latter 
artist  was  his  undoubted  superior  as  a  portrayer 
of  children. 

"  Did  these  two  masters  equal  the  greatest 
portrait  painters  of  earlier  centuries  ?  "  Professor 
Gensel  asks  and  significantly  replies  that  this 
question  may  well  remain  an  open  one.  "  The 
fact  is,"  he  adds,  "  that  we  experience  before  their 
pictures  that  pleasure  which  leaves  no  room  for 
further  desires.  Reynolds'  '  Nelly  O'Brien,'  with 
her  bewitching  smile  and  her  mystery  due  to  the 
shadow  which  is  thrown  by  her  hat,  impresses  us 
as  do  the  most  beautiful  women  by  Rembrandt; 
and   over   Gainsborough's   '  Perdita '   and  '  Mrs. 


68  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

Siddons'  there  hovers  such  indescribable  grace 
and  grandeur  that  we  desire  to  do  them  homage 
as  though  they  were  alive." 

No  one  of  the  other  painters  of  the  first  period 
was  quite  the  equal  of  Reynolds  or  Gainsborough, 
although  several  approached  them  in  the  per- 
fection of  one  point  or  another.  George  Romney 
was  a  master  of  youthful  grace  and  mature 
womanhood.  Thomas  Lawrence  (17 69-18 30),  who 
made  a  name  for  himself  when  a  mere  boy,  was 
often  superficial,  but  at  his  best  revealed  a 
thoroughly  refined  taste  and  great  technical  per- 
fection; while  the  Scotchman,  Henry  Raebtim 
( 1 756-1823),  was  distinguished  by  his  very  suc- 
cessful light  and  shade. 

Landscape  Painters 

Richard  Wilson  (1 713-1782),  a  contemporary 
of  Gainsborough,  is  the  first  English  landscape 
painter  of  consequence.  Like  Claude  Lorrain 
and  Poussin,  he  was  enthralled  by  heroic  ideal- 
ism; and  unlike  Gainsborough,  he  saw  even  his 
native  land  through  the  borrowed  spectacles 
of    foreign    grandeur.     Gainsborough    used    no 


BRITISH  PAINTING  69 

spectacles,  but  he,  too,  was  less  true  than  imagi- 
native, and  drew  more  frequently  on  his  recol- 
lections than  on  nature  herself. 

The  first  man  to  put  himself  in  intimate  touch 
with  nature  was  John  Crome  (1769-182 1), — 
called  Old  Crome  to  distinguish  him  from  his 
son,  John  Bernay  Crome.  Old  Crome  founded 
the  so-called  Norwich  school.  Admiring  the 
Dutch  landscapists,  he  endeavored  to  equal  their 
close  relationship  with  nature,  and  he  succeeded. 
His  pictures  possess  what  the  Germans  call 
Stimmung ;  they  put  the  spectator  in  a  very 
definite  mood.  His  subjects  are  often  common- 
place and  uninteresting,  but  his  love  of  nature 
has  enabled  him  to  reproduce  faithfully  her 
charm  or  her  sadness,  whatever  his  motif  hap- 
pened to  be.  His  coloring  was  usually  of  a  soft, 
rich  brownish  tone. 

It  is  this  brown  that  distinguishes  him  most 
convincingly,  even  for  the  novice,  from  his  still 
greater  contemporary,/^^  Constable (1 776-1837), 
who  was  the  first  to  appreciate  that  green  and 
not  brown  is  the  predominant  tone  of  nature. 
He  also  dared  to  paint  what  the  most  frequently 


JO  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

prevailing  weather  of  England  made  him  see 
constantly,  —  gloomy  days  with  water-charged 
clouds.  Many  critics  have  not  liked  these  pic- 
tures, since  they  lack  the  grandeur  of  a  storm 
or  the  idyllic  loveliness  of  sunny  climes.  "  Bring 
me  my  umbrella,"  a  contemporary  of  Constable 
is  quoted  as  saying ;  "  I  want  to  look  at  Con- 
stable's landscapes."  But  whether  we  like  them 
or  not,  they  are  true;  and  to  this  extent  the 
artist  deserves  our  admiration.  He  certainly 
practiced  and  taught  that  nothing  is  so  im- 
portant for  a  landscape  painter  as  the  imme- 
diate study  of  nature.  Possibly  he  is  open  to 
the  charge  that  he  was  unmindful  of  another 
important  principle,  namely  that  an  artist  should 
make  selections,  and  not  paint  everything  he 
sees. 

Together  with  his  follower,  David  Cox  (178 3- 
'859),  of  Birmingham,  Constable  exerted  a  power- 
ful influence  not  only  on  the  landscape  painters 
of  Great  Britain  but  also  on  those  of  the  Conti- 
nent. It  is  often  said  that  even  the  Frenchmen 
received  from  him  their  first  introduction  to  the 
intimate  landscape,  —  le  pay  sage  intime. 


BRITISH  PAINTING  7 1 

Outside  any  particular  sphere  of  influence, 
Joseph  Mallord  William  Turner  (1775-1851), 
a  unique  personality,  climbed  the  ladder  of  fame. 
Generally  we  admire  and  understand  an  artist 
better  when  we  know  something  of  his  life  and 
his  aspirations.  Even  his  faults  are  apt  to  set 
off  in  strong  relief  some  virtues  which  seem  to 
be  the  guiding  stars  of  his  career.  Not  so  with 
Turner;  the  deeper  we  delve  into  the  recesses 
of  his  life  the  more  disgusted  we  grow.  A 
mean,  dirty  (physically  so),  deceitful,  selfish, 
grasping  miser,  an  ungenerous  acquaintance,  a 
lying  friend ;  he  had  only  one  idea,  and  that  was 
to  be  one  day  the  painter  of  England  whom 
every  one  should  admire.  It  is  a  marvel  where 
he  hid  during  his  long  life  the  great  soul  that 
speaks  in  his  works.  Where  did  he  dream  those 
wonderful  dreams  that  even  to-day  appeal  to 
young  and  old  with  singular  force  ?  Pick  his 
pictures  to  pieces,  enlarge  on  their  unreality, 
ridicule  their  grotesqueness;  yet  before  the  smile 
has  left  your  lips  you,  too,  have  been  drawn 
into  the  magic  circle  of  Turner's  beautiful  un- 
realities.   Or  are  they   perhaps   not  unrealities? 


72  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

Is  the  world  of  sight  at  fault?  Do  our  senses 
lie  to  us,  and  has  Turner  given  mortal  shapes 
to  immortal,  invisible  realities  ? 

His  paintings  have  been  divided  into  several 
classes.  Under  the  influence  of  earlier  painters 
he  at  first  painted  marines,  and  was  somewhat 
hard  in  drawing  and  monotonous  in  color. 
Afterwards  he  composed  heroic  landscapes,  grad- 
ually making  allowances  for  the  effect  of  air,  and 
using  more  natural  tones ;  and  then  he  suddenly 
burst  forth  with  his  symphonies  of  light,  his 
color  pyrotechnics,  when  he  dared  to  emblaze 
his  canvas  with  gold  and  scarlet,  two  colors 
never  seen  before  in  any  British  picture.  His 
final  step  was  in  the  direction  of  the  Impres- 
sionists, dissolving  the  outlines  of  everything 
and  retaining  only  a  certain  tone  of  color  or  of 
light.  In  these  last  pictures  he  often  attained  to 
a  mysteriously  magic  force  in  which  abstract 
ideas,  such  as  rapidity,  gained  the  upper  hand 
over  their  concrete  manifestations,  as,  for  in- 
stance, in  his  picture  of  a  railroad  train  rushing 
through  a  driving  rain  storm. 


BRITISH  PAINTING  73 

Painters  of  Genre  and  of  Animals 

In  a  lighter  vein  David  Wilkie  (1 785-1841), 
during  the  lifetime  of  Turner,  introduced  his 
compatriots  to  peaceful  genre  pictures,  so  that  in 
this  line  also  Great  Britain  took  the  first  step, 
although  the  continentals  were  quick  to  follow 
her  lead.  Wilkie  was  a  man  of  amiable  temper, 
—  a  pleasant  reciter  with  whose  work  one  may 
well  while  away  a  pleasant  hour.  Subjects  inter- 
ested him  far  more  than  technique,  so  that  he  is 
readily  surpassed  in  this  latter  respect  by  George 
Morland  (1 736-1804).  Morland  possessed  the 
recklessness  of  the  great  artist,  but  unfortunately 
permitted  it  to  rule  also  his  private  life.  His 
debauchery  brought  his  life  to  an  untimely  end. 
If  he  had  possessed  moral  strength  and  had  lived, 
he  might  have  become  one  of  the  foremost  artists 
of  England ;  for  he  held  complete  mastery  over 
color  and  had  a  well-developed  sense  of  light  and 
shade.  He  was,  moreover,  a  good  animal  painter, 
and  at  times  equaled  the  successes  of  Landseer. 

Sir  Edwin  Landseer  (1802 -1873)  is  the  most 
famous  animal  painter  of  Great  Britain.    He  not 


74  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

only  loved  the  dumb  beasts  but  also  humanized 
them.  This  pleased  and  still  pleases  the  large 
masses  of  the  people,  but  it  often  offends  the 
more  serious  student  of  nature.  Distinctly  human 
emotions  are  portrayed  in  dogs  or  other  animals, 
and  are  therefore  debased  or  sentimentalized. 
Nevertheless  Landseer  mastered  the  intricate 
forms  of  the  animal  kingdom  more  completely 
than  any  one  else  in  Great  Britain.  Lovers  of 
household  pets  will,  therefore,  continue  to  rank 
him  with  the  great  painters.  Those,  however, 
who  expect  more  of  art  than  a  passing  pleasure, 
and  who  have  experienced  sensations  akin  to 
those  which  the  greatest  of  mortals  have  endeav- 
ored to  express  in  art,  will  be  less  charitable. 
At  best  they  will  concede  Landseer  a  place  with 
the  masters  of  technique. 

The  Pre-Raphaelite  Brotherhood 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  Landseer  stood  in 
his  zenith  when  British  art  had  reached  its  lowest 
level,  —  in  the  third  and  fourth  decades  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  It  was  then  that  John  Ruskin 
took  up  his  cudgels  and  began  to  hammer  away 


BRITISH  PAINTING  75 

on  existing  conditions,  when  he  declared  that 
Turner  alone  towered  above  the  decay,  and  that 
all  official  art  ideals  were  false,  insincere,  and 
corrupt.  The  men  at  the  head  of  the  Royal 
Academy  were  pygmies  compared  with  Reynolds 
and  his  more  immediate  followers.  Sir  Charles 
Eastlake  (1793 -1865)  alone  was  an  exception, 
but  not  so  much  with  his  paintings,  of  which 
there  were  few,  as  with  his  lectures  and  helpful 
personality.  In  view  of  these  facts  it  will  be  seen 
that  any  radical  change  was  bound  to  prove  a 
national  success.  The  present,  the  reformer  said, 
was  bad;  it  was  necessary  to  go  back.  Back  to 
what?  The  answer  to  this  was  given  by  the 
Pre-Raphaelite  Brotherhood. 

The  artists  who  formed  this  brotherhood  be- 
lieved that  honesty  of  workmanship  and  truth 
were  to  be  found  only  in  works  antedating 
Raphael.  They  surrounded  the  early  Renaissance 
with  a  halo,  partly  well  deserved  and  partly 
founded  on  their  own  vivid  imagination.  They 
believed  in  careful  and  loving  workmanship,  and 
declared  war  on  all  tendencies  to  slur  over  details. 
Few  of  them  lived  up  to  this  ideal  very  long ;  for 


76  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

"  you  cannot  paint  thus  and  make  a  living  "  was 
an  observation  that  forced  itself  upon  them  only 
too  soon. 

A  passionate  yearning  to  return  to  any  period 
of  the  past  always  carries  with  it  a  strong  imagi- 
nation; for  no  period  in  the  history  of  the  world 
has  been  so  truly  beautiful  that  it  is  a  worthy 
refuge  from  the  present.  It  becomes  so  only  if 
we  are  forgetful  of  its  defects  and  deck  it  with 
the  mystic  garlands  of  our  own  fancies.  The 
Pre-Raphaelites,  consequently,  were  more  or  less 
like  the  Romanticists.  They  were  of  a  fantastic 
turn  of  mind,  and  in  this  respect  simply  followed 
William  Blake  (i  757-1827),  the  most  fanciful 
of  all  the  British  painters,  who,  however,  is  better 
known  for  his  engravings  than  for  his  pictures. 

The  first  artist  to  espouse  the  new  cause, 
although  he  was  not  a  formal  member  of  the 
brotherhood,  was  Ford  Madox  Brown  (182 1- 
1893).  This  man  broke  irrevocably  with  the 
immediate  past,  and  strove  after  "truth  of  color, 
of  spiritual  expression,  and  of  historical  charac- 
ter." He  was  always  forceful,  but  not  always 
beautiful,  —  especially   in    the    ensemble   of   his 


Dante  Gabriel  Rossetti 

Ecce  Ancilla  Domini 


BRITISH  PAINTING  yy 

colors,  because  he  discarded  "  the  brown  sauce 
which  every  one  had  hitherto  respected  like  a 
binding  social  law,''  without  being  able  to  replace 
it  with  something  entirely  satisfactory.  In  con- 
templating his  dramatic  energy  and  sincerity 
of  conception,  however,  one  forgets  the  acerbity 
of  his  color  schemes. 

Dante  Gabriel  Rossetti1  (1828-1882),  John 
Everett  Millais  ( 1 829-1 896),  and  William  Holntan 
Hunt  (1827 )  were  the  founders  of  the  Pre- 
Raphaelite  Brotherhood.  Looking  back  to-day 
to  the  time  when  these  three  men  declared  war 
on  existing  conditions,  one  wonders  what  it  was 
that  drew  together  three  men  of  such  widely  dif- 
fering tastes.  Rossetti  was  a  dreaming,  sensuous 
mystic,  Hunt  a  mere  child  in  the  simplicity  of 
his  religious  faith,  and  Millais  the  most  one- 
sided lover  of  the  world  of  visible  and  tangible 
phenomena. 

Millais  was  the  first  to  part  company  with  the 
Pre-Raphaelites.  At  first  one  of  the  most  eager 
to  sink  himself  in  the  much-loved  perfection  of 
detail,  his  sober  nature  soon  told  him  that  this 

1  His  real  name  was  Gabriel  Charles  Dante  Rossetti. 


j8  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

was  not  the  road  to  success,  and  since  he  cov- 
eted success  he  left  that  road,  but  carried  with 
him  a  technique  of  great  perfection.  Eventually 
he  became  one  of  the  most  popular  British  art- 
ists, selecting  his  subjects  with  an  eye  to  the 
taste  of  the  masses,  —  sentimental  or  patriotic,  — 
but  rendering  them  with  an  accurate  knowledge 
of  the  requirements  of  a  first-class  artist.  He 
was  versatile,  and  has  left  not  only  well-composed 
and  finely  painted  figure  pieces  but  also  good 
landscapes. 

Hunt  began  with  romantic  pictures,  but  soon 
chose  religious  subjects  and  has  continued  to  do 
so.  His  religious  fervor  reminds  one  of  the 
German,  Overbeck;  in  his  beautiful  simplicity 
of  faith,  however,  he  is  unique.  His  technique 
is  good,  but  his  color  is  rarely  without  blemish, 
as  is  natural  with  a  man  who  is  filled  with  the 
divine  meaning  of  his  subjects. 

The  most  characteristic  of  the  Pre-Raphaelites 
was  Rossetti,  who  introduced  into  art  an  almost 
uncanny  mixture  of  mysticism  and  sensuosity. 
"  His  women  of  fairylike  beauty  charge  the  air 
with    suffocating   sultriness."    One  hardly   dares 


BRITISH  PAINTING  79 

to  breathe ;  one  stops  thinking  and  feels  the  very 
depths  of  one's  emotional  nature  expand  in  re- 
sponse to  the  magic  wand  of  Rossetti  the 
Dreamer.  A  dreamer  he  surely  was,  but  one  of 
that  dangerous  class  whose  dreams  are  realities, 
and  whose  actions  are  those  of  waking  men. 
Intellectual  people  who  need  a  supernatural  stim- 
ulant to  rouse  their  finer  sensibilities  will  find 
the  influence  of  Rossetti  wholesome.  His  influ- 
ence, however,  is  poison  for  delicate  constitutions, 
who  find  it  difficult  to  put  aside  the  inactivity  of 
a  sense-gratifying  ease. 

From  the  merely  artistic  side  his  strongest 
point  was  his  fine  decorative  sense  and  his  beau- 
tiful color  schemes.  His  drawing  was  rarely  mas- 
terful, although  it  was  not  so  arbitrary  as  that  of 
his  famous  follower,  Sir  Edward  Burne-Jones 
( 1 833-1 898).  This  man  of  an  almost  sanctified  dis- 
position was  studying  theology  when  he  first  met 
Rossetti.  He  abandoned  theology,  and,  encouraged 
by  his  new  friend,  took  up  painting.  At  first  ridi- 
culed by  the  public,  he  saw  himself  suddenly 
raised  to  fame,  and  always  held  the  place  of  honor 
in  the  newly  founded  Grosvenor  Gallery. 


80  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

He  did  not  belong  to  the  Pre-Raphaelite 
Brotherhood  and  was  little  concerned  with  truth 
of  details.  He  had  the  gift  of  filling  given  spaces 
with  decorative  grace,  but  in  so  doing  often  did 
violence  to  natural  semblance.  He  took  similar 
liberties  with  color  —  aiming  solely  at  artistic 
effects  —  and  with  the  character  of  his  figures, 
painting,  as  some  one  has  said,  "his  men  as 
women  and  his  women  sexless."  He  will,  never- 
theless, continue  to  be  a  favorite  with  all  who  are 
satisfied  with  a  feast  for  the  eyes,  or  who,  know- 
ing the  man,  are  able  to  reconstruct  from  his 
pictures  his  inspiring  and  noble  personality. 

Even  more  distinctly  decorative  than  Burne- 

Jones,  Walter  Crane  (1845 )  nas  succeeded 

in  combining  the  ideals  of  the  Pre-Raphaelites 
with  classically  beautiful  forms.  He  too,  like  all 
decorative  painters,  constantly  takes  liberties  with 
perspective  and  other  requirements  of  drawing, 
but  there  is  in  his  work  "  a  measured  nobility  of 
form  "  as  compared  with  the  "  paucity  of  flesh  and 
plenitude  of  feeling"  of  Burne-Jones.  Crane  is 
better  known  for  his  text  illustrations  than  for 
his  paintings. 


BRITISH  PAINTING  8 1 

With  George  Frederick  Watts  (18 17-1904)  the 
Pre-Raphaelite  tendencies  cease  to  be  a  powerful 
and  immediate  influence.  One  feels  in  his  works 
the  same  intensity  of  emotional  feeling,  although 
it  is  there  not  for  its  own  sake  but  to  serve  an 
end.  Watts  was  a  firm  believer  in  the  nobility  of 
art  and  in  the  fine  lessons  which  she  might  teach. 
He  was  a  deeply  religious  man,  but  not  of  the 
type  of  Holman  Hunt;  for  he  cared  naught  for 
dogma  or  sacred  stories.  His  vision  went  beyond 
all  such  accidents,  as  he  might  have  said,  to 
essential  truths. 

In  his  composition  he  was  remarkably  simple ; 
one  or  two  figures  generally  sufficed  him,  but 
these  he  painted  with  care  and  wonderful  skill. 
He  was  a  student  of  the  antique,  and  one  often 
finds  in  his  draperies  echoes  from  the  Parthenon 
pediments,  which,  thanks  to  Lord  Elgin,  he  could 
conveniently  study  in  the  British  Museum. 

Watts  also  painted  landscapes,  but  most  espe- 
cially portraits.  The  latter  are  exquisite  character 
studies,  although  they  are  at  times  hard  and  not 
always  soothing  to  the  eye.  He  no  longer  wasted 
his  time  on  details,  but  concentrated  his  attention 


82  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

on. essentials.  To  this  extent  he  was  opposed  to 
the  Pre-Raphaelite  tendencies.  He  also  cared 
less  for  the  slender  models  of  the  early  Renais- 
sance than  for  the  fuller  forms  of  the  later  Italians. 
Their  luxurious  color,  however,  he  avoided,  stat- 
ing that  it  was  not  so  much  his  intention  to 
please  the  eye  as  to  arouse  noble  thoughts.  These 
he  hoped  would  speak  to  the  heart  and  the  imagi- 
nation, and  kindle  in  the  breasts  of  the  people 
whatever  was  best  and  noble  in  them. 

By  the  side  of  Watts  the  more  recent  acade- 
micians, with  their  cool  and  measured  perfection 
of  technique  and  their  great  scholarship,  are  sin- 
gularly unimpressive.  These  men  endeavor  to 
reconstruct  whole  periods  of  the  history  of  cul- 
ture and,  although  they  never  fail  to  arouse 
admiration  for  their  command  of  details,  they  are 
rarely  convincing.  Those,  for  instance,  who  know 
classic  antiquities  will  recognize  in  the  clever 
pictures  of  Frederick  Lord  Leighton  (1830- 1896) 

or    of    Laurenz   Alma-Tadema   (1836 )   the 

forms  and  the  setting  of  the  antique,  but  they 
will  miss  its  spirit.    These  pictures  are  pleasant 


George  Frederick  Watts 

Love  and  Death 


BRITISH  PAINTING  83 

to  look  at,  but,  as  has  been  said,  they  "belong 
neither  in  museums  nor  in  houses,  but  solely  in 
the  palatial  mansions  of  the  landed  aristocracy." 

To  this  class  of  artists  belong  also  Edward 

Poynter  (1836 )   and   possibly  Albert  Moore 

( 1 841-1892),  the  latter  painting  graceful  women 
who  exist  only  for  the  sake  of  their  own  loveli- 
ness. Briton  Riviere  (1840 )  was  more  dis- 
tinctly a  painter  of  genre ;  his  compositions  were 
magnificent,  skillfully  combining  classic  culture 
and  nude  bodies  with  very  remarkable  studies 
from  the  animal  world. 

George  Heming  Mason  (18 18-1872)  held  a 
unique  position,  surrounding  his  landscapes  and 
peasants  with  sweet  dreaminess  and  poetic 
glamour.  His  was  a  sad  life;  brought  up  in 
affluence,  and  forsaking  the  medical  profession 
for  painting  when  he  was  twenty-seven  years 
of  age,  he  suddenly  found  himself  penniless, 
owing  to  his  father's  unexpected  bankruptcy. 
He  was  never  a  well  man  and  had  to  strug- 
gle hard  to  make  a  living.  All  this  shows  in 
his  work,  which,  however  beautiful,  lacks  whole- 
some vigor. 


84  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

The  best  known  portraitists  of  the  latter  years 
of  the  nineteenth  century  were,  next  to  Millais 

and   Watts,   Hubert    von  Herkomer  (1849 ) 

and    Walter    William    Ouless    (1848 ).     The 

former,  a  German  by  birth,  enjoys  the  greater 
reputation.  Since  his  "  Lady  in  White "  first 
stirred  the  art  world  in  1886,  his  name  has  been 
known  everywhere.  It  has,  however,  been  pointed 
out  that  much  of  his  success  was  due  to  the  love- 
liness of  his  model  rather  than  to  his  own  per- 
fection as  an  artist,  and  that  even  before  him 
Whistler  and  Bastien-Lepage  had  handled  simi- 
lar subjects  —  white  against  white  —  with  greater 
success.  The  best  that  Professor  Muther  has  to 
say  of  Herkomer  is  that  he  is  a  man  of  "  a  tame 
but  tastefully  cultivated  temperament." 

In  Scotland  painting  has  recently  followed  its 
own  course.  The  older  movement  centered  in 
Edinburgh  and  was  led  by  men  like  William  Quit- 
ter Orchardson  (1835 )>  John  Phillip  (1817- 

1867),  m&JohnPettie  (1839  -1893).  Their  love  of 
color  and  their  honest  impetuosity  called  for  atten- 
tion. Better  known,  however,  is  a  more  recent 
movement  which  started  in  the  neighborhood  of 


BRITISH  PAINTING  85 

Glasgow  with  Robert  Macgregor,  and  aspires  to 
freedom  from  tradition.  Macgregor  and  his  friends 
profess  adherence  to  no  school  and  believe  in  sal- 
vation by  the  perfection  of  each  one's  individuality. 
This  perfection,  they  hold,  is  the  result  of  sincere 
and  serious  labor.  Consequently  a  fresh  and  whole- 
some atmosphere  pervades  their  work,  which,  un- 
fortunately, is  as  yet  little  known  in  America. 

Those  who  have  watched  this  new  Scotch 
school 1  prophesy  for  it  a  glorious  future.  It  is, 
however,  possible  that  after  all  its  chief  activity 
may  be  missionary,  for  many  of  the  artists  have 
migrated  from  Glasgow  either  to  the  Continent 
or  to  London  or  to  any  other  place  where  their 
growing  reputation  has  assured  them  success.  At 
present  the  most  widely  known  of  them  is  John 

Lavery  (1857 ),  who   shares  with   Shannon 

and  Sargent  the  favor  of  London's  high  society. 
But  unlike  these  two  giants  of  skill  and  brilliancy, 
he  possesses  in  addition  poetic  charm  and  gives 
evidence  of  being  himself  a  sympathetic  and  lov- 
able   optimist.     His   portraits,  further,  are  more 

1  The  men  themselves  decry  the  term  "  school,"  which  smacks  of 
rules  and  regulations,  and  declare  themselves  free. 


86  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

than  portraits ;  they  are  exquisite  pictures,  which 
the  eye  surveys  with  ease  and  a  distinct  sense  of 
physical  pleasure.  They  are  simple  in  composi- 
tion, harmonious  in  tone,  and  the  unmistakable 
renderings  of  well-defined  moods.  The  man  who 
painted  them  was  not  continuously  changing  his 
course  on  the  sea  of  spiritual  experience.  On  the 
contrary,  he  had  found  his  bearings. 

No  survey  of  British  painting,  finally,  would  be 
at  all  satisfactory  without  mention  of  the  impor- 
tant part  played  by  the  painters  in  water  colors. 
As  early  as  1805  these  men  founded  a  society, 
and  have  at  all  times  done  much  to  educate  the 
public  and  their  fellow-artists  to  a  proper  appreci- 
ation of  the  niceties  of  detailed  work  and  the 
brightness  of  colors.  They  have  undoubtedly  ex- 
erted a  powerful  influence  on  the  later  landscape 
painters,  for  it  is  very  probable  that  they  were  the 
first  to  call  attention  to  the  rather  monotonous 
and  unsatisfactory  brownish  tones  which  had  been 
in  use  for  several  generations.  Ruskin  himself 
did  some  extremely  good  work  in  water  colors, 
and  all  the  best  work  in  this  line  has,  in  fact,  been 
done  by  his  contemporaries. 


BRITISH  PAINTING  87 

The  most  famous  artists  of  Great  Britain  flour- 
ished at  a  time  when  art  was  at  its  lowest  level 
everywhere  else.  Reynolds  and  Gainsborough 
have  no  peers  among  their  successors.  The  grad- 
ual diminution  of  the  worth  of  British  painting 
was  arrested  only  once,  as  a  dark  afternoon  may 
be  brightened  by  an  uncanny  sunbeam  from 
behind  the  clouds,  by  the  Pre-Raphaelite  Brother- 
hood. Ruskin's  teachings,  in  spite  of  the  inspira- 
tion which  they  have  brought  and  are  still  bringing 
to  multitudes  of  people,  are  not  so  consistently 
founded  on  truth  and  knowledge  of  natural  condi- 
tions that  they  can  build  up  a  national  art.  They 
can  discover  defects  and  shatter  false  standards, 
but  they  are  unable  to  arouse  wholesome  and  en- 
ergetic individuality. 

While  there  is  much  that  is  pleasing  in  British 
academic  circles,  the  germ  of  promise,  it  would 
seem,  rests  with  the  Scotchmen.  Strangely  enough 
theirs  is  a  democratic  art,  so  that  the  time  may 
come  when  Great  Britain  will  lose  her  proud  posi- 
tion as  the  only  aristocrat  among  the  artistic  na- 
tions of  the  world. 


CHAPTER  IV 

AMERICAN   PAINTING 

American  painting  to-day  is  the  worthy  sec- 
ond of  the  best  art  in  the  world,  and  in  some 
branches,  perhaps,  ranks  first.  It  is  sincere  and 
wholesome,  technically  sound,  and  inspired  by 
lofty  ideals.  It  also  shows  much  common  sense 
and  reveals  the  vigorous  stock  from  which  the 
artists  are  recruited.  Nowhere  does  it  fall  subject 
to  the  overdelicate  taste  of  those  last  scions  of 
highly  cultivated  races,  who  are  known  as  degen- 
erates. It  is  a  pleasing  art,  often  brilliant,  and 
generally  good  to  live  with.  Of  course  there  are 
exceptions,  but,  on  the  whole,  visitors  to  Ameri- 
can exhibitions  are  well  satisfied ;  they  have  come 
in  contact  with  the  works  of  noted  men. 

Leaving  the  American  section  at  any  of  the 
recent  large  fairs,  a  man  might  easily  have  asked 
himself  how  it  is  possible  that  people  who  have 
been  a  nation  hardly  sixscore  years  can  produce 
an  art  so  singularly  free  from  such  defects  as  are 

88 


John  Singer  Sargent 

Portrait  of  Mrs.  Ian  Hamilton 


«.   » 


AMERICAN  PAINTING  89 

due  to  prejudice,  idiosyncrasies,  or  ignorance. 
The  answer  to  such  queries  is  supplied  by  the 
historian,  who  points  to  the  beneficial  mingling 
of  the  races  in  this  large  territory,  and  to  the 
opportunities  which  the  country  has  offered  for 
the  exercise  of  well-developed  faculties.  All  for- 
eigners who  have  entered  into  the  spirit  of  the 
land  testify  to  the  clarifying  effect  which  the 
free  intercourse  with  men  of  other  extraction  has 
had  upon  their  mental  make-up.  It  is  as  if  minds 
heretofore  fettered  by  what  may  be  peculiar 
English,  French,  German,  Slavish,  or  Italian 
prejudices  were  permitted  to  unfold  themselves 
without  restrictions,  the  bias  of  the  one  race 
acting  as  an  infallible  antidote  to  those  of  the 
others.  If  American  painting  is  to  continue  its 
phenomenal  development,  care  must  be  taken 
that  no  distinctly  American  prejudice  is  per- 
mitted to  rivet  new  fetters  for  the  scarcely  yet 
liberated  mind.  People  who  judge  the  nation 
by  European  standards  and  push  her  from  her 
proper  sphere  of  quiet  growth  into  the  whirlpool 
of  foreign  competition  should  be  considered  her 
worst  enemies.     People  who  cry  for  a  national 


90  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

art,  meaning  an  art  shaped  by  distinctly  Ameri- 
can notions,  just  as  the  art  of  France  or  Ger- 
many is  shaped  by  notions  peculiar  to  these 
countries,  will,  if  they  succeed,  have  done  their 
best  to  destroy  the  greatest  charm  of  what  is  now 
called  American  art.  People  who  teach  patriot- 
ism, as  the  word  is  frequently  understood,  wor- 
shiping some  national  hero  because  he  was  an 
American  and  not  because  of  some  noble  traits 
of  character,  instill  into  the  coming  generation 
erroneous  standards. 

The  American  people  throughout  their  short 
period  of  existence  seemed  to  have  possessed  the 
faculty  of  assimilating  the  best  products  of  foreign 
endeavors.  English,  German,  and  French  influ- 
ences in  succession  have  shaped  their  art  standards, 
no  one  being  able  to  continue  its  hold  when  its 
prime  had  passed.  The  first  artists  naturally  turned 
to  England,  being  born  British  subjects,  for  the 
War  of  the  Revolution  did  not  take  place  until 
this  earliest  generation  of  painters  had  attained 
to  maturity,  and  even  a  few  of  them  had  died. 

John  Smibert  (i  684-1 751)  and  Jonathan  B. 
Blackburn  (1 700-1 760)  were  respectable  portrait 


AMERICAN  PAINTING  9 1 

painters,  settling,  unlike  their  more  obscure  pred- 
ecessors, who  were  traveling  artists,  in  one  place 
for  a  considerable  number  of  years.  Both  men 
selected  Boston.  Smibert  came  to  America  in 
1728,  while  Blackburn  probably  was  born  here. 
Their  best  pictures  are  the  equal  of  contempo- 
rary British  portraits  painted  just  before  the 
sudden  rise  of  British  art  in  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  and  certainly  set  a  standard 
of  excellence  in  the  new  country,  not  so  much 
by  what  they  actually  revealed  as  by  what  they 
aimed  at.  They  were,  moreover,  not  unlike  the 
early  works  of  Copley. 

With  John  Singleton  Copley  (173 7-1 8 15)  the 
worthy  history  of  American  painting  begins.  He 
was  a  born  artist  whose  individual  points  of  excel- 
lence far  outshone  those  defects  of  his  art  which 
were  due  to  circumstances  and  lack  of  early  train- 
ing. But  this  does  not  mean  that  he  began  to 
paint  late  in  life,  for  at  seventeen  he  had  already 
achieved  a  certain  reputation,  but  that  the  tech- 
nical side  of  art  is  so  complex  that  no  one  life- 
time suffices  to  solve  its  many  problems.  A  man 
needs  the  opportunity  of  taking  over  as  a  whole, 


92  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

so  to  speak,  the  achievements  of  his  predecessors. 
The  earlier  in  life  this  opportunity  offers  itself, 
the  easier  it  is  to  grasp  it.  Copley  went  abroad 
for  the  first  time  when  he  was  about  forty  years 
of  age,  and  it  was  then  that  he  first  saw  master- 
pieces in  sufficient  quantities.  His  work,  there- 
fore, falls  into  two  classes,  —  the  portraits  of  his 
youth  in  America  and  those  of  his  maturity  in 
England.  The  latter  very  properly  belong  to 
British  art,  for  Copley  was  born  a  British  subject 
and  left  America  before  her  political  independ- 
ence was  recognized. 

His  American  portraits  are  wonderful  products 
of  a  faithful  rendering  of  nature.  The  artistic 
intentions  which  in  grouping,  posing,  color,  and 
brushwork  made  the  canvases  of  Reynolds,  Gains- 
borough, and  even  Copley  himself,  in  his  later 
years,  such  charming  bits  of  independent  reali- 
ties had  little  place  in  his  early  works.  These 
were  national  and  historical  records.  In  his  men 
and  women  that  whole  period  lives  again.  One 
admires  the  sure  eye  and  the  clever  hand  of  the 
portraitist,  but  derives  very  little  aesthetic  pleasure 
from  the  pictures  themselves. 


AMERICAN  PAINTING  93 

Copley  set  the  tide  going  toward  Great  Britain. 
For  more  than  a  generation  American  artists 
turned  to  the  mother  country  for  instruction  in 
their  chosen  calling.  It  is,  however,  a  noteworthy 
fact  that  most  of  them  were  men  of  experience 
before  they  went  abroad.  They  knew  what  they 
lacked  and  knew  exactly  what  they  wanted  to 
acquire.  In  this  respect  they  differed  from  the 
later  artists  who  went  to  Europe  when  young  to 
receive  there  their  first  training.  Under  these 
conditions  it  is  natural  that  the  foreign  instruc- 
tion should  have  variously  affected  the  earlier 
and  the  later  men,  the  former  never  losing  their 
own  established  individuality. 

In  early  years  portraits  were  the  only  pictures 
for  which  there  was  any  demand  in  America,  so 
that  it  was  fortunate  for  the  country  that  her 
artists  turned  to  Great  Britain,  where  this  branch 
of  art  was  especially  flourishing.  One  of  them, 
Benjamin  West  (1 738-1820),  was  well  established 
in  London,  thanks  to  royal  favor,  where  he  served 
as  a  guide  and  warm  friend  to  multitudes  of  men 
who,  unlike  himself,  returned  to  America  to  prac- 
tice their  art.  All  held  West  in  grateful  memory ; 


94  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

and  although  his  paintings  do  not  entitle  him  to 
a  lasting  place  of  honor,  the  services  he  rendered 
to  the  art  of  his  country  in  this  indirect  way  are 
such  that  he  may  be  called  in  more  ways  than 
one  the  Father  of  American  Art.  The  only  clear 
effect  exerted  by  West  on  the  development  of 
painting  was  by  his  picture  "  The  Death  of  Gen- 
eral Wolfe,"  where  he  dared  to  represent  his 
figures  not  in  classic  costumes  but  in  the  clothes 
which  they  actually  wore.  Most  of  his  work  is 
historical,  but  instead  of  being  dramatic  it  is 
theatrical,  and  since  its  color  is  monotonous  there 
is  little  pleasure  to  be  derived  from  it. 

Gifted  with  the  charm  of  innate  nobility  of 
character  and  possessed  of  a  great  warm  heart, 
West  was,  personally,  one  of  the  most  accom- 
plished and  amiable  men  of  his  day.  Gilbert 
Charles  Stuart  (1755-182 8)  was  the  very  oppo- 
site of  West;  as  an  artist  he  was  his  superior, 
and  as  a  companion  he  was  as  unpleasant  as 
West  was  delightful.  He  too,  nevertheless,  had 
a  powerful  attraction  for  people,  many  of  whom 
he  attached  to  himself,  although  he  frequently 
offended  even  his  friends  by  his  choleric  fits  of 


AMERICAN  PAINTING  95 

temper.  He  differed  from  earlier  portrait  painters 
in  his  endeavor  to  represent  character,  not  being 
satisfied  with  a  faithful  rendering  of  visible  forms. 
He  had  little  use  for  large  pictures 1  and  painted 
heads  almost  exclusively,  which,  for  a  whim  of 
his  own,  he  generally  placed  in  the  middle  of  the 
picture.  His  technique,  which  was  distinctly  his 
own,  is  described  by  Mr.  Isham 2  thus :  "  He 
paints  with  an  unequaled  purity  and  freshness  of 
color,  very  delicate  and  sure  in  the  half  tones, 
varying  it  to  suit  the  individual,  but  with  a  pearly 
brightness  which  is  characteristic.  The  paint  is 
put  on  thinly,  as  a  rule,  in  short  decided  touches." 
Stuart  was  survived  fifteen  years  by  John  Trum- 
bull ( 1 756-1 843),  although  these  two  men  were 
born  only  one  year  apart.  With  the  death  of 
Trumbull  in  1843  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century  was  almost  reached.  Most  of  the  artists 
of  the  second  period  of  American  art  were  then 

1  Stuart  generally  painted  on  wood  panels,  and  seems  to  have  used 
canvas  only  on  rare  occasions. 

2  Samuel  Isham,  History  of  American  Painting,  1905.  Mr.  Isham 
has  been  the  first  to  write  comprehensively  on  this  subject.  His  treat- 
ment is  so  fair  and  sympathetic,  and  yet  dictated  by  such  strict  adher- 
ence to  sound  principles  of  art,  that  his  book  in  the  very  year  of  its 
appearance  became  a  classic. 


96  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

grown  to  young  manhood,  and  several  men  who 
are  still  progressively  active  to-day,  such  as  La 
Farge,  Vedder,  and  Enneking,  were  born.  Trum- 
bull was  a  pupil  of  West,  a  fact  which  almost 
links  the  present  generation  to  the  Father  of 
American  Painting,  and  reveals  the  short  space 
of  time  covered  by  American  art. 

Trumbull,  on  his  return  home,  selected  New 
York  as  his  place  of  residence,  an  event  which 
closed  possibly  forever  any  possibility  of  Boston  or 
Philadelphia  becoming  the  art  center  of  America. 
So  much  has  been  said  about  Trumbull's  unkind- 
ness  to  younger  men  who  did  not  bow  to  him, 
and  the  many  stumbling-blocks  which  he  placed 
in  the  way  of  their  development,  that  one  is  apt 
to  forget  his  remarkable  services  to  the  cause  not 
only  of  art  but  also  of  artists.  He  won  the  respect 
of  influential  citizens  and  interested  the  moneyed 
classes  in  art;  in  short,  he  established  a  society 
of  sympathetic  connoisseurs,  —  men  of  means 
and  social  position,  who  were  eager  to  encourage 
native  talent.  It  may  be  argued  that  even  with- 
out the  efforts  of  Colonel  Trumbull  —  he  had 
been  an  officer  in  the  army  —  there  would  have 


t .  -  1 


AMERICAN  PAINTING  97 

been  men  to  play  the  role  of  Maecenas  to  Ameri- 
can artists ;  but  this  may  well  be  doubted,  for  an 
honest  interest  in  art  matters  was  not  one  of  the 
accomplishments  of  that  generation. 

As  president  of  the  American  Academy  of 
Arts1  Trumbull  exerted  another  influence  as  a 
conservative  power.  The  restrictions  of  all  aca- 
demic standards  have  been  so  often  justly  exposed 
that  one  readily  forgets  the  value  of  such  insti- 
tutions. They  act  like  regulators,  preventing 
the  pace  which  some  individuals  would  set  from 
becoming  so  fast  that  the  entire  mechanism  of 
wholesome  development  is  thrown  out  of  gear. 

As  an  artist  Trumbull  ranked  high,  although  his 
later  work  disappointed  the  expectations  raised 
by  his  earlier  pictures.  He  was  a  good  portrait 
painter,  but  lacked  the  individuality  of  Stuart. 
He  is  best  known  for  his  historical  pictures. 
One  of  his  last  commissions,  in  fact,  was  an  order 
from  Congress  to  paint  four  such  pictures  for  the 
Capitol  in  Washington.  Unfortunately  he  was 
then   an  old  man,  without  sufficient  energy  or 

1  Founded  in  1802  under  a  slightly  different  title,  and  incorporated 
in  1808.  Trumbull  was  its  first  vice  president  and  was  elected  its  presi- 
dent in  1 8 18. 


98  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

inspiration  to  acquit  himself  well  of  this  task. 
Since  these  pictures,  however,  became  more  widely 
known  than  any  others,  his  reputation  has  unduly 
suffered  on  their  account,  until  to-day  many  fail 
to  appreciate  his  true  worth. 

Among  the  other  early  figure  painters  Allston, 
Sully,  and  Malbone  stand  out  clearly  from  the 
rest. 

Washington  Allston  (i 779-1843),  once  hailed 
as  a  genius,  is  now  all  but  forgotten.  He  was  a 
most  fascinating  man,  whose  reputation  rested 
more  on  what  people  expected  of  him  than  on 
what  he  actually  accomplished.  From  Coleridge 
to  Washington  Irving,  not  to  speak  of  his  artist 
friends,  all  worshiped  him.  Allston  delighted  in 
portraying  emotions,  and,  like  most  painters  of 
similar  tendencies,  was  unable  to  find  the  golden 
mean.  The  sympathetic  spectator,  nevertheless, 
who  needs  but  a  suggestion  to  reveal  to  him  the 
thoughts  of  the  artist  will  like  the  work  of  Allston. 
There  is  a  dignity,  however  crudely  expressed,  in 
his  "  Prophet  Jeremiah,"  for  instance,  as  he  sits 
intently  listening  to  the  heavenly  inspiration, 
and  such  a  fine  contrast  between  him  and  the 


AMERICAN  PAINTING  99 

listening  scribe  at  his  feet  that  the  man  who  once 
has  grasped  Allston's  meaning  painfully  feels 
the  weakness  of  Sargent's  magnificently  painted 
prophets  on  the  frieze  in  the  Boston  Library. 

Thomas  Sully  (1 783-1872),  who  lived  until 
within  twenty-five  years  of  the  twentieth  century, 
was  a  graceful  painter,  often  sentimental,  espe- 
cially in  his  portraits  of  women,  but  sometimes 
wonderfully  pleasing.  He  showed  in  several  pic- 
tures, notably  the  portrait  of  Dr.  Samuel  Coates, 
a  feeling  for  space,  such  as  appears  in  none  of  the 
works  of  his  earlier  contemporaries.  His  color, 
too,  singles  him  out  from  the  rest,  for  it  has  an 
enchanting  warmth  all  its  own. 

Edward Maldone  (ij8j-i8oj)  died  young,  when 
he  was  barely  twenty  years  of  age,  so  that  it  is 
hardly  fair  to  judge  his  work  by  the  mature 
achievements  of  the  other  men.  However,  in  one 
branch  of  art  —  miniatures — he  made  a  lasting 
name  for  himself  in  spite  of  his  youth.  "  They 
are  excellent,"  says  Isham,  "and  would  hold  a 
respectable  place  anywhere." 


IOO  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 


Second  Period 


None  of  the  earlier  men  had  shown  any  marked 
interest  in  landscape  painting.  This  was  reserved 
for  the  next  generation,  and  coincided  with  the 
growth  of  a  new  society  in  America.  After  the 
War  of  1812,  when  the  recently  won  independ- 
ence seemed  firmly  established  and  the  ties  with 
the  mother  country  were  broken  forever,  the  old 
aristocracy  had  ceased  to  exist,  and  with  it  went 
the  men  whose  noble  countenances  had  dignified 
the  portraits  of  the  earliest  painters.  "  The  graces 
of  life"  had  given  way  to  the  virtues,  not  that 
the  latter  had  not  been  included  in  the  former, 
but  that  these  surely  were  no  longer  expected  to 
be  combined  with  the  accomplishments  of  the 
national  leaders.  "  Good  and  beautiful "  was  the 
Greek  designation  of  a  gentleman,  and  it  was  ap- 
plicable to  the  American  men  of  note  during  the 
Revolutionary  era.  If  "  beautiful  "  refers  not  only 
to  the  outward  appearance  but  also  to  the  general 
deportment  and  the  way  in  which  the  sterling 
qualities  of  character  are  displayed,  then  this 
word  should  perhaps  be  dropped  from  the  epithet 


o    £ 


- 


AMERICAN  PAINTING  Id 

applied  to  the  American  man  during  the  decade's 
following  the  War  of  1812.  Simultaneously  there 
also  disappeared  the  style  of  portrait  and  figure 
painting  which  was  characteristic  of  the  first 
period  of  American  art. 

Chester  Harding  (1792 -1866)  alone  continued 
the  early  traditions,  so  that  he  may  almost  be 
reckoned  in  the  same  class  with  Copley,  Trum- 
bull, and  Sully.  His  style,  however,  was  as  rugged 
as  his  characteristically  American  temperament, 
for  which  reason  he  is  generally  classed  with  the 
men  of  the  second  and  more  distinctly  national 
period. 

With  William  Morris  Hunt  (1824-1879)  the 
break  with  the  past  is  complete.  Allston  is  the 
only  one  of  his  precursors  to  whom  he  bears 
the  slightest  resemblance,  and,  like  him,  he  was  of 
a  thoroughly  poetic  disposition.  Hunt  no  longer 
sought  instruction  from  Great  Britain,  but  from 
France,  where  he  was  a  pupil  of  Couture  and  of 
Millet.  His  chief  importance  lies  not  in  his  pic- 
tures, albeit  many  of  them  are  inspiring,  but  in 
his  ability  as  a  teacher.  "  He  certainly  was,"  in  the 
words  of  Professor  Van  Dyke,  "  the  first  painter 


tq2  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

in  America  who  taught  catholicity  of  taste,  truth, 
and  sincerity  in  art,  and  art  in  the  artist  rather 
than  in  the  subject."  The  last  is  the  noteworthy 
thing.  It  means  that  technique  is  very  well,  in 
fact  absolutely  necessary,  but  that  it  will  create  a 
masterpiece  only  if  the  man  who  wields  it  has  the 
requisite  largeness  of  character. 

George  Fuller  (1822 -1884)  was  even  more  of  a 
poet  than  Hunt;  he  was  a  man  of  skill  too,  but 
one-sided  and  apt  to  disregard  the  requirements 
of  technique.  The  subjects  and  forms  of  his  pic- 
tures were  generally  lacking  in  worth,  but  his 
canvases  express  "  by  means  of  color  and  atmos- 
phere "  singularly  poetic  emotions.  Fuller's  life 
was  not  successful.  Before  he  was  forty  years  of 
age  family  considerations  induced  him  to  leave  his 
artist  friends  and  to  settle  on  a  farm  in  Deerfield. 
He  continued  painting  until  his  death,  although 
he  practically  disappeared  from  all  exhibitions  for 
more  than  fifteen  years.  In  his  younger  days  he 
painted  portraits  in  the  old  accustomed  style. 

Of  far  greater  importance  than  the  figure 
painters  of  this  period  were  the  painters  of  land- 
scape.   They  were  men  with  the  enthusiasm  of 


AMERICAN  PAINTING  103 

discoverers.  Settling  in  the  mountains  which 
overlook  the  majestic  Hudson,  they  conceived  a 
burning  love  for  the  scenery  of  their  native  land. 
Diversified  as  were  their  tastes,  they  are  gener- 
ally grouped  together  as  forming  the  Hudson 
River  or  White  Mountain  school. 

Thomas  Cole  (1 801-1848)  was  the  earliest  of 
these  artists.  Strangely  enough  he  was  of  for- 
eign birth,  but  he  quickly  became  a  better 
American  than  many  men  born  in  the  country. 
He  certainly  was  the  first  to  discover  the  beauty 
of  the  Hudson,  and  by  his  views  of  it  he  will 
live  long  after  his  other  works,  such  as  the 
series  of  pictures  called  the  "  Voyage  of  Life " 
and  the  "  Course  of  Empire,"  by  which  he  sought 
to  teach  moral  lessons,  have  been  forgotten. 

John  F.  Kensett  (18 18-1872)  was  one  of  the 
greatest  of  these  Hudson  River  artists.  It  is 
noteworthy  that  he  endeavored  to  render  nature 
accurately,  with  no  thought  of  an  artistic  rear- 
rangement, which  is  the  more  remarkable  be- 
cause he  rarely  painted  from  nature  but  gener- 
ally from  accurate  sketches.  He  had  a  facile 
hand   and   an  open  eye  for  the   various  moods 


104  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

of  the  seasons  and  the  hours  of  the  day.  It  is 
this  versatility  that  raises  him  above  As  her 
Brown  D?irand  ( 1796 -1886),  his  immediate  pred- 
ecessor, who  often  attained  to  greater  truth  than 
he,  because  he  painted  what  he  actually  saw  out 
of  doors  and  did  not  trust  to  his  memory  or  to 
sketches  in  the  execution  of  his  pictures. 

R.  Sandford  Gifford  (1823 -1880)  was  moved 
by  different  considerations,  for  he  held  that  the 
artistic  appearance  of  his  canvases  was  of  fully 
as  much  importance  as  their  truth  to  nature; 
or,  as  Mr.  Isham  puts  it,  "  He  is  the  first  to  base 
the  whole  interest  of  a  picture  on  purely  artis- 
tic problems,  such  as  the  exact  value  of  sunlit 
sails  against  an  evening  sky." 

Frederick  Edwi?i  Church  (1826 -1900)  exem- 
plified an  entirely  different  doctrine,  which  in 
its  very  foundation  is  by  no  means  so  strongly 
opposed  to  that  of  Gifford  as  may  at  first  ap- 
pear. He,  too,  believed  in  the  independent  re- 
ality of  a  picture,  but  he  drew  from  this  creed 
a  different  conclusion.  Art  should  be  more 
powerfully  impressive  than  nature;  therefore  the 
transcriptions  of  ordinary  scenes  are  insufficient. 


AMERICAN  PAINTING  105 

This  led  him  to  hunt  over  the  countries  for 
striking  views,  and  wherever  he  found  one,  at 
home  or  abroad,  he  painted  it,  adding  to  it  from 
his  own  vivid  imagination  such  qualities  of  light 
or  color  as  would  make  it  most  stirring.  His 
artistic  intentions,  one  might  say,  ran  riot  with 
him ;  but  so  beautiful  were  these  intentions  that 
the  finished  product,  however  studied  and  lack- 
ing in  spontaneity,  rarely  fails  to  arouse  pleasure 
and  even  a  sense  of  admiration  in  the  spectator. 

Albert  Bierstadt  (1830- 1902)  was  another  for- 
eigner who  so  intimately  identified  himself  with 
the  art  tendencies  of  his  adopted  country  that 
he  appears  to  be  a  true  American.  Like  Church 
he  looked  for  imposing  sceneries,  and  found 
them  in  the  Rocky  Mountains.  He  had  a  keen 
perception  of  the  grandeur  of  nature,  and  knew 
how  to  make  her  even  more  imposing  than  she  is. 

The  two  remaining  men  of  this  set  of  great 
landscape  painters,  Alexander  H.  Wyant  (1836- 
1892)  and  George  Junes s  (1825 -1894),  form  the 
connecting  link  between  their  fellows  and  the 
painters  of  the  present  day.  They  followed  an 
entirely  different  ideal  from  that  of  Cole,  Church, 


106  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

or  Bierstadt;  it  was  an  ideal  more  akin  to  that 
of  Durand  or  Kensett,  and  one  that  is  univer- 
sally recognized  to-day  as  the  more  worthy. 
Their  conception  of  the  value  of  the  visible 
picture  was  not  less,  but  their  respect  for  nature 
was  greater ;  and  they  knew  that  the  most  power- 
ful message  is  not  always  conveyed  by  gigantic 
mountains  or  remarkable  phenomena,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  by  placid  sceneries.  The  quiet  orchard, 
the  still  meadows,  and  peaceful  country  dis- 
tricts,—  all  can  speak  to  him  who  listens.  And 
they  listened.  They  sank  their  personality  in  the 
vastness  of  nature's  great  appeal  to  mankind. 

Inness  was  the  leader.  He  had  learned  to 
know  nature  as  well  as  Corot  and  his  Barbizon 
friends  knew  her.  "  Like  a  Greek,"  it  has  been 
said,  "he  felt  God  in  the  stream  or  grove,  the 
immanent  presence  of  superhuman  powers  " ;  and 
like  a  Greek,  he  knew  how  to  make  the  spectator 
see  with  his  eyes  and  feel  with  his  emotions. 
Wyant  followed  in  his  path,  and,  although  a  less 
versatile  man,  added  to  his  achievements  such  a 
delicate  refinement  that  he  stands  unrivaled  in 
this  respect  by  any  other  American. 


Asher  Brown  Durand 

Landscape 


I         *     e    • 


AMERICAN  PAINTING  107 


Third  Period 


All  these  men  had  formed  their  styles  and 
achieved  their  reputations  prior  to  the  first  World's 
Fair  held  in  America  in  1876.  On  this  occasion 
there  were  exhibited  in  this  country  collections  of 
pictures  from  abroad,  which  made  such  a  power- 
ful impression  on  the  native  artists  that  1876  is 
generally  taken  as  the  date  when  the  third  period 
of  American  art  begins,  —  a  period  during  which 
the  technical  skill  of  the  artists  has  been  devel- 
oped to  such  a  degree  that  it  may  be  said  to  be 
inferior  to  none.  In  the  preceding  period  most  of 
the  men  who  went  abroad  sought  instruction  in 
Germany,  first  in  Dusseldorf  and  later  in  Munich. 
After  1876  most  art  students  went  to  France. 
Italy,  of  course,  had  always  been  visited  by  all 
who  could  afford  it,  but  not  so  much  for  contact 
with  living  men  as  for  the  inspiration  derived 
from  the  old  masters.  Unlike  the  first  Ameri- 
can painters,  those  of  the  recent  generation  went 
abroad  as  young  and  untried  men,  eager  to  learn 
the  rudiments  of  their  art  from  the  famous  artists 
in    France.     If  one   runs   through   any  modern 


108  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

catalogue  of  artists,  one  finds  nine  men  out  of 
every  ten  listed  as  pupils  of  foreign  painters, 
and  only  quite  recently  have  reputable  artists 
appeared  who  have  received  their  entire  train- 
ing at  home. 

It  is  difficult  to  draw  a  line  between  those  men 
who  belong  to  the  second  period  of  American  art 
and  those  who  belong  to  the  third;  for  many 
may  be  claimed  for  both.  If  a  line  must  be 
drawn,  it  is  wise  to  group  men  like  Enneking 
and  Homer  Martin,  who  have  bravely  continued 
in  the  front  ranks,  with  the  modern  men;  and 
others  like  Hunt,  Bierstadt,  and  Fuller,  who  to 
the  last  have  exemplified  the  spirit  of  an  earlier 
age,  with  the  artists  of  the  second  period. 

Versatility  is  a  characteristic  of  the  modern 
Americans;  therefore  few  men  can  be  said  to 
be  painters  either  of  figures  or  landscapes  or 
marines  exclusively.  The  best  men,  however, 
have  made  their  mark  in  one  of  these  three  spe- 
cial branches,  which  fact  enables  one  to  classify 
them  accordingly. 

John  J.  Enneking  (1841 )  is  one  of  the  fore- 
most landscapists.    He  enters  into  the  moods  of 


AMERICAN  PAINTING  109 

nature  as  tenderly  as  did  the  old  masters  of  Barbi- 
zon,  but  he  sees  color  rather  than  lines  and  masses. 
He  is  an  Impressionist  of  the  Impressionists,  al- 
though he  has  no  patience  with  their  excesses. 
During  his  long  life  he  has  thought  even  more  than 
he  has  observed  and  painted,  and  in  consequence 
has  evolved  a  remarkably  beautiful  style  of  his  own. 
His  autumn  scenes,  which  keep  all  the  fairylike 
beauty  of  an  October  day  in  New  England,  made 
his  reputation.  Of  late,  however,  he  has  turned 
away  from  them ;  they  are  too  real  and  leave  too 
little  to  the  suggestiveness  of  a  noble  spirit.  Like 
Whistler  he  no  longer  cares  to  see  nature  fully 
revealed.  His  latest  picture  is  a  view  of  the 
mountains  enveloped  in  mist  which  the  rising 
sun  is  transforming  into  an  incandescent  sea  of 
myriads  of  lights.  "  It  was  a  beautiful  view,"  he 
says,  "  one  to  satisfy  even  the  hungriest  soul,  but 
when  the  mist  was  gone  everything  was  gone." 
All  his  latest  pictures  are  painted  in  what  he  calls 
one  or  two  plains,  meaning  distinct  areas  of  light. 
"  One  plain  is  good,"  he  says,  "  two  plains  fine, 
and  three  or  more  are  bad  almost  every  time"; 
for   when    there    are   three    or  more   plains  the 


1 10  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

picture  loses  its  oneness  and  sinks  to  the  level  of  an 
almost  photographic  reproduction  of  local  tones. 

James  McNeil  Whistler  (1834-1903)  followed 
the  same  principle,  although  he  seems  not  to  have 
formulated  it.  He  was  driven  to  its  acceptance 
by  the  delicacy  of  his  eyes  and  the  ethereal  pref- 
erences of  his  spirit,  which  dreaded  in  a  picture 
everything  that  smacked  of  corporeal  reality.  Art 
to  him  was  food  for  the  spirit.  It  matters  little 
that  he  denied  a  voice  in  matters  artistic  to  the 
soul  or  the  intellect.  His  own  senses  were  so 
fine  that  they  were  practically  spiritual.  He  saw 
in  the  dignified  figure  of  his  mother  all  that  this 
one  word  means;  but  when  people  were  pleased 
with  his  picture,  and  said  he  had  painted  more 
than  mortal  eyes  behold  in  a  mere  body,  he  grew 
angry,  and  replied  he  had  painted  only  what  he 
had  seen.  If  this  is  true,  then  his  eyes  had  both 
natural  and  spiritual  sight ;  for  his  "  Sarasate " 
also,  for  instance,  is  far  more  than  a  portrait  of 
this  famous  violinist ;  it  is  a  perfect  embodiment 
of  the  idea,  —  music. 

Whistler  has  been  called  a  colorist,  but  not  in 
the  sense  of  the  man  who  combines  bright  hues 


James  Abbott  McNeil  Whistler 

The  White  Girl 


AMERICAN  PAINTING  III 

in  pleasant  harmonies,  but  of  him  who  combines 
the  greatest  varieties  of  shades  of  a  few  subdued 
hues  in  one  grand  chord.  Whistler  himself  called 
many  of  his  pictures  symphonies.  They  were 
rather  chords,  —  simple,  clear,  powerful  chords 
that  swell  and  swell  until  they  seem  to  envelop 
the  whole  universe.  In  addition  he  was  a  dreamer 
who  stood  at  night  at  the  banks  of  the  Thames 
and  saw  unfolded  all  the  magic  beauty  of  fairy- 
land, and  painted  it,  and  could  not  understand  why 
everybody  had  not  seen  it.  Technically  Whistler 
was  undoubtedly  influenced  by  his  admiration  for 
Japanese  painting,  for  he  was  one  of  the  first 
in  the  western  world  to  appreciate  Japanese  art, 
which  is  based  on  spiritual  and  not  on  physical 
realities.  The  secret  of  his  art  was  the  nobility 
and  delicacy  of  his  spirit.  Whatever  he  saw  he 
felt,  or,  one  may  almost  say,  what  he  did  not  feel 
he  did  not  see,  and  certainly  never  painted. 

No  greater  contrast  can  be  imagined  than  ex- 
ists between  Whistler  and  John  Singer  Sargent 

(1856 ),  the  Realist,  who  by  his  supreme  skill 

almost  convinces  the  thoughtless  that  the  present 
age  has  no  spirit  and  worships  only  material  and 


112  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

visual  realities.  Brilliant,  unscrupulous,  restless, 
he  is  never  at  a  loss  for  means  of  expression.  He 
will  paint  a  head  or  a  hand  over  and  over  again, 
if  only  at  last  he  gets  that  touch  of  daring  spon- 
taneity which  does  not  go  beyond  a  vivid  first 
impression.  To  this  passion  he  sacrifices  every- 
thing. His  innumerable  portraits,  in  consequence, 
are  highly  sensational,  and  show  "  disquiet,  lack 
of  equilibrium,  and  absence  of  principle."  They 
reveal,  on  the  other  hand,  a  technique  as  perfect 
as  it  is  versatile,  and  demand  admiration  for  the 
painter  while  they  engender  distrust  for  the  man. 
If,  centuries  from  now,  people  should  endeavor  to 
reconstruct,  from  Sargent's  undoubtedly  excellent 
likenesses,  the  moral  status  of  to-day,  they  would 
surmise  that  gentleness,  hope,  truth,  and  happi- 
ness had  been  unknown.  Even  his  women  are 
rarely  given  without  the  spice  of  latent  vice.  It 
must,  however,  not  be  believed  that  Sargent  is 
willfully  wicked,  far  from  it.  He  is  one  of  the 
most  conscientious  followers  of  his  profession, 
caring  for  little  else  than  painting,  giving  himself 
at  all  times  just  as  he  is.  But,  as  has  been  rightly 
said,  "  his  gifts  are  those  of  the  senses  rather  than 


AMERICAN  PAINTING  113 

those  of  the  spirit."  He  too  paints  what  he  sees, 
and  it  is  either  our  misfortune  that  we  can  see 
so  little  nobility  in  his  pictures,  or  his  that  he  so 
rarely  sees  anything  noble  in  his  sitters.  Or  may- 
be it  is  our  mutual  misfortune  that  a  man  of  his 
unequaled  gifts  should  live  in  an  age  when  so 
much  perverse  rather  than  fine  human  nature 
reveals  itself  to  his  accurate  eye. 

Mr.  Sargent  is  so  popular  as  portrait  painter 
that  he  does  not  often  leave  this  field  of  art. 
His  two  notable  excursions  into  the  realm  of 
decorative  art  occasioned  a  storm  of  controversy. 
First  came  his  frieze  of  the  prophets  in  the 
Boston  Public  Library,  underneath  his  allegorical 
"  March  of  Civilization,"  and  then  his  "  Dogma  " 
in  the  same  building.  The  latter  picture  did  not 
please  the  popular  fancy.  The  color  scheme  is 
good,  but  the  subject  itself  and  its  treatment 
are  so  void  of  serious,  deep-felt  thought  that 
only  few  people  consider  this  picture  worthy  of 
Sargent.  It  is  different  with  the  earlier  decora- 
tion. Here  the  artist  has  painted  con  amove ;  the 
colors  are  sensuously  beautiful,  and  distributed 
with  a  skill   and   spontaneity  which   reveal    the 


114  THE  ART  0F  PAINTING 

master.  At  closer  acquaintance,  however,  even 
this  picture  loses  its  charm,  because  the  indi- 
vidual figures  are  mere  bodies,  —  they  have  no 
characters.  The  painter  has  not  felt  the  force 
of  personalities,  which  alone  can  give  lasting 
value  to  such  a  decoration.  But  how  could  this 
be  otherwise?  Instead  of  thinking  of  personali- 
ties, the  painter  considered  only  persons, — bodies, 
— and  these  he  painted  from  models.  One  of  the 
prophets  who  enjoyed  the  greatest  popularity 
at  first,  was  painted  from  an  Italian  model  who 
was  draped  for  this  purpose  and  had  to  stand 
thus  for  four  hours  and  twenty  minutes!    One 

may   paint    a    portrait    of     Mr.   X in    this 

fashion,  but  how  can  one  expect  to  do  justice 
thus,  without  thought  or  contemplation,  to  the 
prophet  Hosea! 

Of   the  other  best  known   American  portrait 

painters,  only  James  Jebusa  Shannon  (1862 ) 

makes  his  permanent  home  in  England.  He  is 
less  aggressive  and  spontaneous  than  Sargent, 
and  generally  strives  for  charm,  which  he  instills 
not  only  into  the  canvas  but  also  into  the  person 
there    represented.     In    America   he   is   almost 


™ 

■BBW    / 

■HV  - 

if- .     •  * 

1 ..  •  • ..•  ••  •  •  . 

Joseph  R.  De  Camp 

Girl  with  the  Lute 


AMERICAN  PAINTING  115 

unknown,  but  in  Great  Britain  he  is  one  of  the 
most  popular  painters,  especially  with  the  aristoc- 
racy, many  of  whom  prefer  his  "poems"  to  the 
brusque  and  pointed  dicta  of  Sargent.    Of  those 

who  live  at  home,  John  W.  Alexander  (1856 ), 

Cecilia    Beaux,    William    M.   Chase   (1849 ), 

Joseph  R.  De  Camp  (1858 ),  Edmund  C  Tar  bell 

(1862 ),  and,   of    the    very   latest   generation, 

Albert  Felix  Schmitt(i8j$ )  may  be  mentioned 

as  representative,  and  following  each  his  or  her 
own  style. 

Alexander  is  modern  to  the  core,  not  only  in 
his  mode  of  painting  but  also  in  his  selections. 
His  pictures  are  always  interesting,  frequently 
daring,  but  never  lacking  in  taste.  Without 
lowering  the  level  of  his  art,  he  invariably  knows 
how  to  find  that  point  where  the  preferences  of 
the  masses  intersect  the  fastidious  desiderata 
of  the  connoisseur.  Miss  Beaux,  on  the  other 
hand,  who  formerly  painted  charmingly,  has  re- 
cently been  carried  away  by  her  peculiar  tech- 
nique, so  that  her  last  exhibitions  showed  a 
small  minority  of  pleasing  canvases.  Dashing 
spontaneity    and    daring    coloring    are    not,    in 


Il6  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

themselves,  sufficient  to  satisfy  either  the  public 
or  the  artists. 

Unlike  either  of  these  painters,  William  M. 
Chase  has  won  his  laurels  not  by  outbursts  of 
brilliancy,  but  by  sane  and  unremitting  labor. 
His  services  as  teacher  in  New  York  are  such 
that  much  of  the  credit  for  the  vigorous  state 
of  art  in  America  is  due  to  him.  The  brilliancy 
of  individual  achievements  obscures  for  a  day  the 
foundations  on  which  the  wholesome  development 
of  the  art  of  a  nation  depends.  America,  however, 
is  singularly  fortunate  in  possessing  not  only 
Chase  and  Du  Mond  and  Francis  D.  Millet,  but 
many,  many  more  who  keep  sacred  the  nobility 
of  art  and,  unconcerned  about  popular  applause, 
teach  what  is  true  and  paint  what  is  good. 

In  Boston  Edmund  C.  Tarbell 'has  risen  from  the 
comparatively  small  group  of  great  artists  to  the 
position  of  foremost  master.  Always  an  excellent 
painter,  he  has  recently  broadened  until  his  pic- 
tures have  come  to  add  essentially  to  the  moral 
and  aesthetic  wealth  of  the  nation.  There  was 
a  time  when  these  epithets  were  considered 
contradictory,  but  most  people  have  learned  that 


AMERICAN  PAINTING  117 

real  art  is  never  immoral,  and  that  morals,  as 
long  as  they  are  not  aesthetic,  cannot  be  good. 
The  external  charm  of  Tarbell's  pictures  is  due 
to  his  freedom,  for  he  knows  the  dictates  and 
achievements  of  all  modern  schools  and  is  the 
slave  of  none.  His  portraits,  figure  pieces,  and 
groups  are  permeated  with  refinement,  good  taste, 
and  that  undefinable  something  which  makes  of 
one,  when  one  beholds  it,  an  optimist. 

There  is  sometimes  a  certain  resemblance  in  con- 
ception between  Tarbell  and  Joseph  R.  De  Camp, 
which  shows  itself  in  an  unconscious  selection  of 
subjects  such  as  pleased  the  Dutch  Little  Masters. 
Tarbell's  "  Girl  Crocheting  "  and  De  Camp's  "  Girl 
with  the  Lute"  are  both  pictures  of  which  the 
old  masters  could  have  been  proud.  In  technique, 
of  course,  no  resemblance  exists,  for  Tarbell  and 
De  Camp  are  luminists  in  a  sense  in  which  this 
word  was  unknown  in  the  seventeenth  century. 
Several  years  ago  these  two  artists  and  eight  more 
formed  the  select  group  of  "The  Ten  Painters," 
whose  annual  exhibitions  are  among  the  best  the 
world  over  for  sanity,  clean  and  perfect  technique, 
and  thoughtful  conception. 


1 1 8  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

These  very  same  qualities  characterize  also  the 

work  of/.  Gari  Melchers  (i860 ),  an  American 

of  cosmopolitan  habits,  who  lives  in  Holland  but 
retains  studios  in  many  other  places,  among  them 
New  York.  His  motto  is  "  Klar  und  Wahr," 
and  he  has  kept  to  it  always.  In  portraiture  he 
is  not  uniformly  successful,  so  that  his  "Presi- 
dent Roosevelt "  is  a  good  picture  but  a  poor  por- 
trait, for  it  in  no  sense  suggests  the  character  of 
Mr.  Roosevelt. 

The  nourishing  state  of  American  art  is  best 
appreciated  when,  for  a  brief  survey  of  it,  one 
passes  in  review  the  best  known  names  and  realizes 
the  impossibility  of  mentioning  even  a  small  num- 
ber of  them.    There  is  Elihu  Vedder  (1838 ), 

with  all  his  flaming  fancies;  Abbott  H.  Thayer 

(1849 ),  who  so  beautifully  knew  how  to  group 

his  children  in  "  Charitas  "  and  similar  pictures ; 

George  de  Forest  Brush  (1855 );  Miss  Mary 

Cassatt ;  Miss  Laura   Coombs  Hills  (1859 ), 

the  foremost  painter  of  miniatures ;  Childe  Hassam 

(1859 );  Kenyon  Cox  (1856 ),  who  writes 

as  well  as  he  paints ;  Frederic  Porter  Vinton 
(1846 ),  the  aristocrat  of  the  old  school;  and 


O       a 


^H 


AMERICAN  PAINTING  119 

Charles  H.  Davis  (1856 ),  who  worships  at  the 

shrine  of  beauty.  And  then  there  is  the  whole 
large  school  of  landscape  painters,  most  of  whom 
are  still  living,  and  each  year  adding  to  their 
reputation.  Of  those  who  have  recently  died, 
Homer  Martin  (1836- 1897),  Robert  C  Minor 
(1840- 1 904),  and  John  H  Twachtman  (1853— 
1902)  were  the  best  known. 

Of  the  marine  painters,  Thomas  A.  Harrison 

(1853 ),  Wins  low  Homer  (1836 ),  and  Charles 

H.  Woodbury  (1864 )  are  the  greatest  masters, 

with  eight  or  ten  as  close  seconds.  In  their  hands 
marine  pictures  have  taken  on  an  entirely  new 
aspect.  Woodbury,  for  instance,  studies  the  sea 
as  sincerely  and  intimately  as  the  greatest  land- 
scapists  have  studied  the  land.  Personally  he 
seems  to  like  the  turbulent  aspects  of  the  ocean, 
rendering  them  at  all  times  convincingly  and  with- 
out reference  to  man.  When  he  paints  a  wave, 
there  is  no  ship  in  sight,  no  shore,  no  swimming 
man,  but  only  the  wave,  and  this  one  wave  be- 
comes a  true  and  powerful  part  of  that  one  nature 
which  we  can  understand  because  we  too  are 
of  it. 


120  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

One  branch  of  American  painting,  mural  deco- 
ration, promises  to  play  a  prominent  part  in  the 
twentieth  century.  Some  excellent  work  was 
done  in  the  last  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century 
and  earlier,  but  sober  second  thought  will  con- 
vince people  that  the  exalted  praise  which  most 
of  these  decorations  received  was  due  more  to 
the  admiration  which  enthusiastic  pioneers  richly 
deserve  than  to  the  lasting  value  of  their  work. 
Laymen  can  hardly  realize  what  practically  un- 
surmountable  obstacles  the  painter  meets,  who,  for 
the  first  time,  turns  from  his  easel  to  the  decora- 
tion of  huge  walls.  It  is  like  speaking  in  a  differ- 
ent tongue,  and,  at  that,  on  a  subject  which  is  not 
of  one's  own  choosing ;  for  every  building  demands 
subjects  in  keeping  with  its  architecture,  and  by 
its  lighting  prescribes  certain  modes  of  composi- 
tion and  treatment  to  which  the  artist  must  sub- 
mit. The  ensuing  renunciation  of  their  cherished 
freedom  has  been  most  difficult  for  our  artists. 
They  had  rather  break  new  windows  into  the  walls 
or  insist  on  artificial  illumination  than  paint  ac- 
cording to  the  architectural  requirements.  A  glar- 
ing instance  of  this  is  found  in  Edwin  A.  Abbey  s 


AMERICAN  PAINTING  121 

(1852 )  paintings  of  the  Holy  Grail  in  the  Bos- 
ton Public  Library.  Individually  each  picture  of 
this  series  is  a  wonderfully  grand  illustration  of  a 
particular  incident,  painted  in  colors  so  beautiful 
and  designed  so  impressively  that  it  could  not 
be  better.  But  collectively,  as  mural  decorations, 
the  paintings  could  not  be  worse.  They  make 
the  room  top-heavy,  they  call,  almost  passionately, 
for  light  where  there  is  none,  they  contradict  the 
quadrangular  shape  of  the  room  and  make  the 
spectator  long  to  haul  them  down  to  his  level. 
Some  he  wishes  to  see  at  close  range,  others  in 
a  distant  perspective.  As  a  result,  he  emerges 
from  the  room  mentally  bewildered  and  physically 
exhausted. 

Other  artists  have  steered  clear  of  this  Scylla, 
the  danger  of  surcharging  their  pictures  with  ideas, 
and  painting  them  individually  beautiful,  but  with- 
out reference  to  the  part  they  have  to  play  as 
decorations  of  a  room,  but  have  not  escaped  the 
equally  undesirable  Charybdis  of  too  little  artistic 
worth.  Gradually,  however,  the  finest  American 
mural  decorators  have  evolved  a  style  which  is 
full  of  promise  for  the  future.    All  look  upon  John 


122  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

La  Farge  (1835 )  as  the  father  of  their  pecul- 
iar art  in  America.  His  is  a  preeminently  refined 
artistic  personality,  abhorring  every  commonplace 
expression  and  striving  incessantly  for  what  is 
truly  noble.  Imitation  is  a  word  unknown  in  his 
vocabulary,  for  (this  is  the  closing  remark  of  one 
of  his  inspiring  lectures) 

On  aime  toujours 
Ce  qu'on  ne  verra 
Deux  fois. 

Of    the    younger    men,  Edwin   H.  Blashfield 

(1848 )  has  probably  had  most  experience  in 

mural  decorations  and  won  the  greatest  reputa- 
tion. His  graceful  compositions  have  yet  suffi- 
cient dignity  to  do  justice  to  the  exalted  themes 
which  he  has  had  to  treat,  while  his  coloring  is 
generally  well  adapted  to  his  purpose.  Less  sim- 
ple and  straightforward,  although,  when  success- 
ful, more  pleasing  and  spontaneous,  Henry  O. 
Walker  (1843 )  has  taken  a  great  step  in  ad- 
vance.   Frank    W.  Benson   (1862 ),   who   has 

painted  several  fine  figures  as  wall  decorations, 
is  better  known  for  his  charming  out-of-door 
compositions,  —  girls  in  the  garden  with  sunlight 


Albert  Felix  Schmitt 

In  Wonderland 


AMERICAN  PAINTING  123 

playing  in  bush  and  tree  and  bathing  hair  and 
summer  dress  in  glorious  light.  What  is  true  of 
Benson  is  true  of  most  mural  painters :  they  for- 
sake their  easels  not  often  and  apparently  only 
regretfully. 

That  America  in  all  branches  of  painting  has 
taken  her  place  in  the  front  rank  is  undeniable. 
Some  observers  even  feel  inclined  to  believe  that 
before  long  she  may  become  the  leader  of  the  art 
of  the  world.  This,  however,  will  only  be  pos- 
sible if  the  public  at  large  changes  its  attitude 
toward  art.  The  American  people  must  become 
more  broad-minded,  less  provincial  in  art  matters, 
and,  above  all,  cultivate  an  interest  in  things 
beautiful. 


CHAPTER  V 

PAINTING  IN  ITALY,  SPAIN,  AND  IN  THE 
NETHERLANDS 

Italian  Painting 

It  is  difficult  to  recognize  in  the  Italian  paint- 
ers of  the  nineteenth  century  the  descendants 
of  the  great  Renaissance  artists.  The  aims  and 
accomplishments  of  the  moderns  are  fundamen- 
tally different  from  those  of  earlier  ages,  so  that 
the  technical  skill  of  the  artists  alone  can  give 
evidence  of  a  long  and  splendid  descent.  Individ- 
ually these  artists  are,  with  possibly  one  or  two 
exceptions,  less  great  than  the  masters  of  the 
Quattrocento  and  the  Cinquecento.  The  very 
fact,  however,  that  they  do  not  aspire,  as  a  class, 
to  imitate  their  famous  forerunners,  but  are  eager 
to  work  along  their  own  lines,  is  sufficient  guar- 
antee of  considerable  worth.  They  are  striving 
after  truth;  and  although  the  conquest  of  truth 
depends   on    breadth    of    vision    suggesting   the 

proper  approach,  serious   and  continued    search 

124 


ITALIAN  PAINTING  125 

cannot  fail  to  result  ultimately  in  comprehensive 
culture  and  success. 

The  early  nineteenth  century  was  marked  by 
a  certain  indecision  as  regards  the  proper  path 
which  art  should  follow.  Some  men  still  turned 
their  eyes  to  the  past  and  endeavored  to  create 
worthy  pictures  by  combining  the  best  elements 
of  earlier  works.  The  greatest  of  these  Eclectics 
was  Camuccini  (1775 -1844)  m  Rome,  who  only 
late  in  life  began  to  feel  the  influences  of  the 
new  ideals  which  had  grown  up  in  the  north  of 
Europe. 

It  was  largely  the  classic  school  of  a  French- 
man, David,  which  had  begun  to  find  ardent 
admirers  also  in  Italy.  Appiani  (1754-1817)  of 
Milan  espoused  its  cause,  and,  being  a  man  of 
considerable  worth,  succeeded  in  painting  pic- 
tures which  even  to-day  deserve  praise.  Other 
artists,  such  as  Coghetti  (1 804-1 875)  of  Rome, 
sought  inspiration  in  contact  with  the  German 
Romanticists,  the  best  of  whom  then  lived  in 
Rome.  The  Classicists  and  the  Romanticists 
alike  were  attracted  by  historical  subjects,  so  that 
historic  and  historico-religious  pictures  were  the 


I26  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

best  to  be  found  in  Italy  in  the  first  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century. 

Next  to  history,  genre  proved  to  be  a  favorite 
of  the  Italians,  probably  because  in  it  the  artist 
can  show  his  skill.  He  is  not  bound  by  accidents 
of  nature,  and  may  design  an  entire  picture  ac- 
cording to  the  dictates  of  his  artistic  intentions. 
To  these  dictates  Masaccio,  early  in  the  Quat- 
trocento, had  been  the  first  to  make  allowances, 
establishing  thus  the  modern  art  of  painting. 
Properly  coupled  with  truthful  representations 
of  nature,  they  form  the  foundations  of  good  art. 
Exempted,  on  the  other  hand,  from  this  union 
and  made  the  leading  motive,  they  give  to  pic- 
tures an  air  of  artificiality.  The  charge  which  is 
justly  made  against  most  Italian  genre  painters 
is  that  they  have  laid  too  much  emphasis  on  their 
artistic  intentions,  disregarding  the  worth  of  their 
subjects  and  choosing  costumes,  poses,  and  actions 
which,  because  they  are  not  based  on  truth,  appear 
to  be  unreal  and  artificial. 

If  these  Italian  genre  pictures  have,  neverthe- 
less, pleased  many  people,  it  has  been  due  to  the 
scintillating   brightness  of   their   color   schemes, 


ITALIAN  PAINTING  1 27 

which,  real  or  unreal,  has  the  power  of  creating 
an  actual  sense  of  physical  pleasure.  For  many 
years,  therefore,  these  pictures  have  had  a  good 
market.  But  this  in  turn  has  reacted  on  their 
quality,  for  most  of  them,  doubtless,  were  painted 
with  no  higher  motive  than  that  of  realizing  a 
handsome  price. 

In  justice  to  some  Italian  genre  painters  it 
must  be  said  that  if  they  disregarded  truth  in 
the  selection  of  their  subjects,  painting  fanciful 
ease  of  living,  dancing,  joy,  and  never  a  bit  of 
work,  as  if  their  poor  country  abounded  in 
wealth,  even  they  strove  after  truth  in  execu- 
tion. Their  colors  easily  convey  the  irresponsible 
and  thoughtless  pursuit  of  pleasure  which  their 
subjects  suggest. 

Most  of  the  names  of  the  early  genreists  have 
to-day  only  a  historic  value.  Several,  however, 
have  preserved  their  popularity,  and  among  them 

especially  Gaetano  Chierici  (1838 ).    This  is 

due  to  the  fact  that  his  charming  compositions, 
exquisitely  painted,  approach  that  degree  of  real- 
ity which  the  modern  critical  mind  expects  as  a 
minimum. 


I28  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

An  entirely  new  mode  of  genre  painting  origi- 
nated in  Naples  at  about  the  middle  of  the  cen- 
tury.    Here  Morelli  (1826 )   had   begun   to 

search  after  "  absolute  truth,"  that  is,  truth  founded 
on  the  realities  of  visible  nature  rather  than  of 
imagination.  He  and  his  followers  made  exact 
studies  of  their  actual  surroundings  and  traveled 
much,  especially  in  the  East,  in  order  to  quicken 
their  observative  powers.  Their  realism,  as  was 
natural  in  the  bright  lands  where  they  worked, 
was  coupled  with  an  exquisite  brightness  of  color. 
In  this  respect  they  had,  moreover,  the  marvelous 
example  of  the  gayest  of  colorists,  the  Spaniard, 
For  tuny  (1838 -1874),  who  lived  among  them. 
"  Ah,  Fortuny,  Fortuny,"  a  great  French  artist 
had  exclaimed,  "you  are  the  master  of  us  all. 
Even  in  our  dreams  we  are  haunted  by  the 
splendor  of  your  pictures."  "  Their  color  indeed 
glitters  and  sparkles  and  cajoles  the  eye,"  in  the 
words  of  a  critic, "  with  the  charm  of  poems  woven 
into  oriental  rugs." 

Essentially  different  from  the  traditional  genre 
painters  and  from  the  Neapolitan  Realists,  Gio- 
vanni Segantini  (1 858-1 899)  of    Milan  rose  to 


ITALIAN  PAINTING  129 

fame  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. He  was  of  a  singularly  peaceful  and 
dreamy  disposition.  He  loved  the  quiet  harmo- 
nies of  eventide  and  saw  the  steadying  influ- 
ences of  humble  work  well  done,  but  also  gladly 
thought  of  the  moments  of  rest  that  follow  it. 
The  quiet  and  seemingly  insignificant  details  of 
daily  life  appealed  to  him,  because  of  the  im- 
portance which  they  assumed  in  his  imagina- 
tion. He  was  thus,  unconsciously,  led  to  carry 
out  the  principles  of  the  two  contemporary 
schools  of  genre  painters  and  of  Realists,  with 
whom  he  at  first  appeared  to  have  absolutely  no 
connection.  Truth,  however,  presented  itself  to 
him  in  a  new  aspect,  and  one  that  is  akin  to  the 
conceptions  of  most  great  modern  masters. 

Several  younger  men  have  begun  to  see  things 
as  Segantini  saw  them,  using  not  only  their 
bodily  eyes  but  also  their  spiritual  vision.  Judg- 
ing by  the  works  seen  in  recent  exhibitions  they 
are  in  the  ascendency,  and  eager  to  supplant  the 
painters  of  genre  pictures,  that  "  superficial  art 
manufactured  for  the  benefit  of  the  foreigner," 
as  some  one  has  appropriately  called  them.    But 


130  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

as  yet  it  is  difficult  to  discern  from  which  quarter 
the  wind  of  inspiration  will  continue  to  blow. 
The  minds  of  the  people  have  been  stirred, 
while  from  the  heated  discussions  of  twenty 
years  ago  as  to  what  constituted  the  highest 
kind  of  truth  the  artists  have  settled  down  to 
solve  actual  problems;  they  have  begun  to  real- 
ize that  theoretical  discussions  are  valuable,  but 
that  in  all  ethical  questions  experience  alone 
supplies  satisfactory  answers. 

The  places  which  in  earlier  centuries  led  in 
the  pursuit  of  art  are  coming  to  the  fore  again, 
but  so  general  is  the  intercourse  of  modern  life 
that  no  special  characteristics  are  attributable  to 
the  various  centers  of  painting.  As  yet  Milan 
and  Naples  have  produced  the  greatest  men, — 
Appiani,  Morelli,  Segantini,  —  writh  Venice  and 
Rome  close  seconds,  and  Turin  and  Florence 
not  far  behind.  Surveying  what  the  Italians  have 
thus  far  done,  it  needs  no  prophet's  eye  to  tell 
one  that  in  the  coming  century  they  will  once 
more  take  their  place  by  the  side  of  the  best. 

Naturalism  based  on  the  most  gruesome  occur- 
rences is  one  of  the  keynotes  of  modern  Spanish 


SPANISH   PAINTING  131 

art.  "  Nerves  accustomed  to  bullfights,"  says  Pro- 
fessor Gensel,  "one  needs  if  one  views  the  ex- 
hibits of  the  Museo  de  Arte  Moderno  in  Madrid. 
Close  together  one  sees  there  on  the  walls  of  one 
gallery  '  The  Insanity  of  Johanna  of  Castiles,' 
'  The  Decapitation  of  Torrijo  and  his  Followers,' 
'The  Bell  of  Huesca'  with  the  fifteen  cut-off 
heads,  'Johanna  Insane  at  the  Coffin  of  her 
Husband';  and  in  another  gallery  'The  Chief 
Inquisitor  Torquemada  Ines  de  Castro '  with  the 
fearful  representation  of  a  corpse  partly  decayed, 
'  Nero  viewing  the  Dead  Body  of  Agrippina,'  and 
so  forth.  Everywhere  insanity,  blood,  decompo- 
sition, and  everything,  life  size!"  The  only  re- 
deeming feature  of  the  long  series  of  historical 
pictures  is  their  exquisite  technique.  They  are 
in  composition  and  in  execution  equally  grand. 
It  is,  therefore,  not  at  all  surprising  that  the 
same  artists  excelled  also  in  another  style  of 
painting,  the  simple  genre.  The  greatest  of  all 
Spanish  genre  painters  was  Mariano  Fortuny, 
who  died  young,  before  he,  too,  had  tried  his 
hand  at  bloody  history.  His  scintillating  color 
schemes,  his  studied  effects  which  yet  impress 


132  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

one  as  singularly  true,  and  the  nobility  of  his 
conception  have  raised  him  to  the  highest  rank 
among  painters.  In  1859  he  accompanied  Gen- 
eral Prim  in  the  campaign  against  Morocco,  and 
learned  to  know  and  to  admire  the  gayety  of 
African  life.  Later  he  was  in  Paris,  and  after  a 
few  years  at  home  returned  to  Italy  where  he  had 
been  as  a  student.  He  was  an  indefatigable 
worker  whose  remarkable  successes  had  no  other 
effect  than  to  spur  him  on  to  new  achievements. 
He  died  in  Rome  in  1874. 

Recently  some  exquisite  portraits  and  land- 
scapes have  also  been  painted  in  Spain.  When- 
ever the  subject  offers  an  opportunity  for  the 
display  of  that  fiery  temper  which  Spaniards  love, 
the  picture  is  a  masterpiece ;  for  the  Spanish 
painters  possess  a  good  technique  and,  owing  to 
their  fondness  for  naturalism,  present  the  very 
personality  of  their  sitter. 

The  best  known  of  these  younger  men  is  Ignacio 

Zuloaga  (1870 ),  whose  life  story  reads  like 

a  fairy  tale.  Apprenticed  to  a  founder  of  metal 
work,  suddenly  enamored  of  art  after  an  acci- 
dental  visit  to  the   Prado,  art   student  without 


Ignacio  Zuloaga 

Daniel  Zuloaga  and  his  Daughters 


, « 


FLEMISH  PAINTING  133 

teachers,  a  poverty-stricken  failure  in  Rome, 
Paris,  and  London,  successful  bullfighter  through 
eighteen  engagements  and  finally  gored  by  his 
next  opponent,  he  returned  to  art  full  of  enthusi- 
asm, but  with  little  hope,  only  to  find  that  fortune 
had  faced  about  and  was  smiling  on  him.  His 
great  picture  of  "  Daniel  Zuloaga  and  his  Daugh- 
ters" was  bought  by  the  Luxembourg,  and  soon 
he  was  hailed  as  one  of  the  best  of  the  moderns. 
He  has  gone  straight  back  to  Goya,  if  not  to 
Velasquez  and  his  fiery  contemporaries.  The 
prickling  color  schemes  of  Fortuny  he  does  not 
know,  but  he  gives  one  with  blunt  mastery  what 
his  immediate  predecessors  had  overlooked, —  the 
soul  of  Spain. 

Flemish  Painting 

With  the  dawn  of  the  nineteenth  century  the 
long  Flemish  sleep  of  artistic  inactivity  which 
had  followed  upon  the  death  of  Rubens  ended. 
David,  the  great  French  Classicist,  woke  the  peo- 
ple from  their  lethargy.  He  was  a  born  leader, 
so  that  the  Flemish,  or,  as  they  are  now  called, 
the  Belgian  artists,  naturally  flocked  about  him 


I34  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

when  after  the  fall  of  Napoleon  he  settled  among 
them  an  exile.  The  Belgian  national  sympathies, 
however,  were  not  with  the  classic  tendencies 
which  David  represented.  When  once  the  Bel- 
gians had  received  from  him  their  incentive  to 
art,  they  soon  turned  to  their  own  master,  Rubens, 
for  inspiration.  They  did  this  the  more  eagerly 
because  their  country  in  1830  had  declared  its 
political  independence,  and  a  newly  born  patriot- 
ism had  taken  hold  of  the  people.  Soon  an  era  of 
historical  painting  began.  Huge  canvases  were 
filled  with  scenes  taken  from  the  history  of  the 
nation.  Hugeness  and  accuracy  of  drawing  do 
not  go  hand  in  hand.  Color,  however,  lends  itself 
well  to  the  decoration  of  large-sized  canvases. 
Color,  moreover,  had  been  the  distinctive  mark  of 
Rubens,  and  as  such  made  a  sentimental  appeal 
to  the  people,  not  to  mention  the  fact  that  their 
national  character  is  probably  such  that  it  is  bet- 
ter able  to  appreciate  the  beauty  of  color  than 
that  of  line.  Outside  the  regular  course  of  devel- 
opment Antoine  Wiertz  (1806- 1865)  pursued  a 
style  of  art  which  is  unique.  Before  his  vast 
canvases,   in    the    Wiertz   museum   in    Brussels, 


FLEMISH  PAINTING  135 

turbulently  filled  with  wild  fancies,  most  people 
confess  their  inability  to  understand  him,  and  agree 
with  Christian  Brinton,  who  says,  "  It  is  less  as  an 
artist  that  this  singular  figure  challenges  attention 
than  as  the  man  who  best  typifies  that  nightmare 
which  preceded  the  dawn  of  rationalism  and  de- 
mocracy." And  yet,  there  is  strength  in  his  pic- 
tures, if  only  of  a  powerful  imagination  run  riot, 
and  beauty  too  in  many  details,  and  nobility,  and 
impatience  of  everything  petty  and  commonplace. 
There  is  evidence  of  heroic  self-sacrifice,  of  faith 
in  something  grander  than  the  world  has  yet  seen. 
There  is  genius  of  conception,  but  it  is  coupled 
with  chaos  of  execution. 

Much  saner  than  Wiertz,  Louis  Gallait  (1810- 
1887)  is  generally  credited  with  being  the  leader 
in  the  new  style  of  painting.  Leys  (18 15  -1869) 
had  much  in  common  with  him,  but  unlike  him 
studied  the  old  German  masters  in  preference 
to  Rubens.  In  consequence  there  is  noticeable 
in  many  pictures  a  harking  back  to  the  Mid- 
dle Ages  whence  also  the  German  and  French 
artists,  known  as  Romanticists,  had  sought  in- 
spiration.   They,  too,  had  emphasized  color  and 


I36  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

placed  themselves  in  opposition  to  the  Classicists. 
This  explains  why  also  the  Belgian  artists  of  the 
Gallait  and  Leys  type  are  called  Romanticists.  It 
is,  however,  a  noteworthy  fact  that  the  conditions 
which  led  to  the  Romantic  movements  in  the 
three  countries  were  different  each  from  the  other. 
In  Germany  it  was  the  subject-matter  and  in 
France  the  interest  in  the  technical  manner  that 
had  given  rise  to  the  new  schools.  In  Belgium 
the  Romantic  school  was  the  natural  result  of  a 
national  temper  reasserting  itself,  and  of  a  newly 
born  and  almost  fanatic  patriotism. 

Love  of  fatherland  shows  not  only  in  admira- 
tion of  its  public  men  but  also  in  appreciation  of 
the  peaceful  conditions  under  which  the  lowlier 
people  live.  Braekeleer  (1830- 1888)  and  Madou 
( 1 796- 1 87 7),  therefore,  contemporaries  of  Gallait 
and  Leys,  delighted  in  scenes  for  which  they 
found  the  prototypes  in  the  pictures  of  their 
great  countryman,  Teniers. 

In  all  these  pictures  the  attitude  of  the  artist 
towards  his  subject  gradually  grew  to  be  of  greater 
interest  than  the  subject  itself,  so  that  the  Bel- 
gians were  singularly  well  prepared  for  the  lessons 


FLEMISH  PAINTING  137 

of  the  French  landscapists  of  Barbizon  who  had 
discovered  le  pay  sage  intirne.  This  kind  of  land- 
scape painting  readily  appears  when  artists  en- 
deavor to  perceive  the  moods  of  nature. 

The  skill  of  the  Belgian  painters  has  grown  in 
the  nineteenth  century  with  a  luxuriance  compa- 
rable only  to  the  growth  of  a  plant  which  a  clever 
florist  has  kept  back  for  a  season  that  it  may  blos- 
som forth  at  the  appointed  time  with  unusual 
brilliancy.  Nothing  is  too  difficult  for  the  Belgians 
to-day.  The  solution  of  all  the  modern  problems 
on  which  school  after  school  of  nineteenth-century 
artists  have  labored  seems  to  be  theirs  easily.  And 
what  adds  a  special  charm  to  their  pictures  and 
singles  them  out  at  all  exhibitions  is  their  fresh- 
ness and  youth.  Like  a  young  athlete  who  grace- 
fully jumps  a  pole  and,  forgetful  of  the  difficulty, 
seems  to  enjoy  more  the  beauty  of  the  perform- 
ance and  the  control  of  his  body  than  the  magni- 
tude of  the  task,  so  the  Belgians  appear  to  delight 
in  skill  not  for  its  own  sake  but  for  the  freedom 
of  expression  and  beauty  of  execution  which  it 
vouchsafes. 


138  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 


Dutch  Painting 


The  nineteenth  century  did  not  open  auspi- 
ciously for  Dutch  art.  The  level  was  low,  yet 
not  so  low  that  a  reversion  to  better  things  fol- 
lowed as  a  necessary  conclusion.  The  powerful 
personality  of  David  of  France  made  itself  felt 
also  in  Holland;  but  neither  the  artists  nor  the 
public  took  kindly  to  the  principles  and  ideas 
of  his  classic  school.  Classicism,  therefore,  has 
hardly  a  place  in  the  history  of  Dutch  art. 

Jan  Willem  Pienernan  (1 779-1853),  indeed, 
might  be  called  a  Classicist,  but  not  one  of  the 
pure  style,  because  he,  too,  permitted  other  influ- 
ences to  shape  his  career,  notably  those  of  the 
French  Romanticists.  It  is  better,  therefore,  to 
refer  to  the  early  Dutch  artists  of  this  period  as 
transition  painters,  and  to  realize  at  once  that  the 
salvation  of  Dutch  art  did  not  come  from  with- 
out but  from  within.  David's  classicism  served 
as  the  initiative  not  because  it  was  accepted  but 
because  it  was  rejected.  It  could  only  be  kept 
out  of  the  country  by  having  opposed  to  it 
another  force,  and  this  the  Dutch  began  to  look 


DUTCH  PAINTING  139 

for  in  their  own  past.  They  began  to  compare 
their  modern  pictures  with  those  of  their  ances- 
tors, and  to  their  credit  discovered  that  the 
subjects  and  technical  aims  were  the  same,  but 
that  the  honest  attitude  of  the  artists  toward  their 
art  had  lost  its  place  with  them.  This  defect 
they  set  out  to  mend,  and,  thanks  largely  to  the 
work  of  three  men,  —  Josef  Israels,  Bernardus 
Blommers,  and  Adolf  Artz,  —  they  succeeded  re- 
markably well.  Fixing  their  attention  on  the  really 
worthy  things,  they  also  rediscovered  the  lost  skill, 
so  that  to-day,  judged  even  by  this  standard,  they 
take  their  place  by  the  side  of  the  best. 

Their  greatest  man  is  Josef  Israels  (1824 ), 

once  a  poor,  despised  little  Jew,  to-day  respected 
both  as  a  man  and  as  an  artist  far  beyond  the 
boundaries  of  his  native  land.  There  is  some- 
thing eternally  sad  yet  wonderfully  sweet  in  his 
art.  We  pity  the  woman  sitting  by  the  deathbed 
of  her  husband,  and  now  alone  in  the  world,  but 
we  rejoice  at  the  thought  that  folk  capable  of 
such  love  still  people  this  earth.  With  similar 
emotions  we  join  the  little  group  of  the  fisher- 
man  and  his  children,  who  are  returning  from 


140  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

their  mother's  funeral.  The  man  holds  his  baby 
in  his  arms,  and  we  know  that  although  the 
mother  is  dead  the  children  will  not  want  in  love. 
Or  let  us  look  at  the  lonely  Jew  lost  in  thought, 
or  at  any  other  picture  by  Israels;  everywhere 
we  find  the  same  noble  outlook  on  life.  He  does 
not  make  it  gay  by  "  patching  the  old  rags  with 
motley  strips  and  stripes,"  but  by  infusing  into  it 
the  tenderness  which  is  the  result  of  right  living 
and  right  thinking. 

His  technique  is  sufficient  to  his  needs,  although 
professional  men  have  no  difficulty  in  detecting 
its  weak  points.  He  himself  is  quoted  as  having 
remarked  to  Liebermann,  "  Barring  Millet,  there 
is  no  other  artist  who  knows  so  little  of  drawing 
and  painting  as  I,  and  has  yet  painted  such  good 
pictures." 

Sunnier  than  the  art  of  Israels  is  that  of  Adolf 
Artz  (1837 -i 890),  an  excellent  genre  painter, 
who  follows  more  distinctly  the  endeavors  of 
the  transition  painters,  notably  of  Jan  Bosboom 
(18 1 7-189 1).  The  latter  was  especially  good  in 
the  light  of  his  church  interiors;  Artz,  however, 
is  best  in  his  genre  pieces  of  the  lower  and  the 


DUTCH  PAINTING  I4I 

middle   classes.     Fully   his    equal   is    Christoffel 

Bisschop   (1828 ),   whose   art  has   been    well 

characterized  by  the  title  of  one  of  his  pictures, 
"  Sunshine  in  Home  and  Heart." 

Bernardus  Blommers  (1845 )  is  the  vigor- 
ous writer  in  prose  compared  with  the  poets 
Israels,  Artz,  and  Bisschop.  His  coloring  is 
gayer  and  his  lines  are  less  refined,  —  more  sug- 
gestive of  the  active  life  that  physically  healthy 
people  lead. 

Several  of  these  figure  painters  prefer  a  land- 
scape to  an  interior  as  the  setting  of  their  figures ; 
and  show  the  same  intimate  understanding  of 
silent  nature  as  of  human  beings.  The  Dutch 
landscapists,  in  fact,  are  as  important  as  the 
figure  painters.  Their  best  known  representative 
is  Anton  Mauve  (1838 -1888),  who  in  his  cattle 
pieces  almost  equals  the  sweet  melancholy  of 
Israels.  He  considers  the  surrounding  landscape 
as  carefully  as  the  animals,  and  as  a  colorist  seems 
to  pay  special  attention  to  those  colors  which 
appear  in  the  high  lights. 

The  two  brothers  Wilkm  Maris  (18 15 )  and 

Jacob  Maris  (1837 -1899)  nave  a  broader  outlook 


I42  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

than  Mauve,  intending  to  reveal  the  stable  dig- 
nity of  their  country  in  their  landscapes,  although 
they,  too,  prefer  to  make  the  final  appeal  by  some 
fine  cattle  or  by  an  impressive  windmill.  Some- 
times the  sun  is  shining,  but  more  frequently 
marvelous  cloud  formations  remind  one  of  the 
peculiar  Dutch  atmosphere. 

Hendrik  Willem  Mesdag  (1831 )  loves  his 

native  land  as  well  as  they,  but  he  sees  its  great- 
est charm  in  the  sea  which  bounds  it.  He  has 
noticed  the  ever-varying  aspect  of  the  waters  and 
the  accompanying  changes  of  the  effects  of  light. 
To  paint  these  is  his  delight  and  his  strength. 
He  is  undoubtedly  one  of  the  best  modern 
painters  of  marines. 

When  men  have  the  gift  to  see  essentials, 
externals  have  less  interest  for  them.  When 
the  subject  charms  them  they  pay  less  atten- 
tion to  its  expression  except  in  so  far  as  it  is 
absolutely  necessary  to  serve  their  ends.  It  is, 
therefore,  not  astonishing  that  the  Dutch  artists 
should  have  been  little  influenced  by  the  various 
continental  schools,  most  of  which  were  based 
on  a  search  for  new  and  better  technical  means. 


DUTCH  PAINTING  I43 

They  did  not  actively  enter  into  the  hunt  for 
such  means,  though  they  accepted  the  best  re- 
sults. This  was  natural  also  for  one  other  rea- 
son. Most  of  the  more  recent  schools  have 
struggled  with  the  problem  of  intensely  bright 
sunlight.  Such  light  is  rare  in  the  moist  climate 
of  Holland,  and  since  Holland  in  its  varying 
moods  is  the  subject  of  the  Dutch  artists,  these 
latter,  of  course,  had  little  occasion  to  join  the  Im- 
pressionistic movement.  No  people,  on  the  other 
hand,  could  entirely  withdraw  from  the  struggle 
for  something  new  in  the  outward  appearance 
of  pictures,  which  swept  over  Europe  like  wild- 
fire during  the  latter  decades  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  In  Holland,  therefore,  several  artists 
joined  these  movements,  not  as  active  partici- 
pants, but  as  distant  although  most  interested 
spectators.  They  took  over  into  their  own  art 
whatever  pleased  their  fancy.  These  painters 
may  be  called  Individualists.  Widely  differing 
one  from  the  other,  they  still  have  this  in  com- 
mon, that  they  believe  in  the  right  of  every 
artist  to  select  subjects  and  expressions  accord- 
ing to  his  own  peculiar  liking.    Rarely,  however, 


144  THE  ART  0F  PAINTING 

have  they  regarded  such  freedom  to  be  a  license, 

as  many  of  their  Impressionistic  neighbors  have 

done. 

Modern  Dutch  art  has  made  no  great  stir  in 
the  world.  It  is  quiet  and  appealing  rather  than 
dazzling  and  surprising.  It  is  not  brilliant,  but 
it  is  exquisite.  It  is  deservedly  well  liked  by 
people  of  a  contemplative  turn  of  mind,  and  is 
passed  unnoticed  by  those  who  pay  attention 
only  to  the  execution  and  forget  that  execution 
should  not  be  the  whole  of  the  picture. 

The  development  of  Dutch  art  is  singular. 
Without  much  heralding  Rembrandt  made  his 
appearance,  and  with  him  the  host  of  great  men, 
Then  there  came  a  period  of  rest,  and  while 
after  that  all  eyes  were  turned  to  France  and 
people  believed  that  only  from  France  there 
could  come  salvation,  the  Dutch  quietly  went 
to  work  and  created  a  new  art  as  fine  in  its  way 
as  anything  that  had  ever  been  done  in  Holland. 


The  Return  of  the  Fishing  Boats 

After  the  painting  by  Mesdag 


<    .    t      I 


CHAPTER  VI 

PAINTING  IN  RUSSIA,  DENMARK,  AND 
SCANDINAVIA 

Russian  Painting 

Russia  has  only  slowly  taken  her  place  by  the 
side  of  the  nations  of  western  Europe,  for  Asiatic 
half  culture  held  her  in  a  firm  embrace.  Down 
to  the  tenth  century  of  the  Christian  era  survivals 
of  Greek  art  struggled  with  barbaric  innovations, 
while  Byzantine  influences  dominated  the  coun- 
try from  the  time  when  the  Grand  Duchess  Olga 
professed  Christianity  in  955  to  the  accession  of 
Peter  the  Great  in  1682.  Since  then  western 
Europe  has  been  the  inspiration  of  Russian  paint- 
ing, and  it  is  only  recently  that  a  national  spirit 
has  shown  vigorous  signs  of  existence. 

Peter  the  Great,  anxious  to  equal  the  splendor 
of  the  French  court,  summoned  many  foreign 
artists  to  Russia,  but  none  of  the  truly  great  men 
cared  to  visit  his  land,  so  that  the  standard  of  art 

was  set  by  inferior  artists  from  France  and  Italy. 

MS 


146  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

That  Italian  art  in  the  eighteenth  century  stood 
on  a  low  level  is  well  known,  and  since  this  art 
was  esteemed  above  all  others  in  Russia,  it  is 
small  wonder  that  the  beginning  of  Russian 
painting  is  uninteresting.  Men  there  were  of 
diligence  and  patience,  but  they  knew  no  worthy 
leaders  and  were  not  big  enough  to  hew  out  a 
path  of  their  own.  Their  training,  moreover,  was 
of  the  kind  to  stifle  every  vestige  of  individuality. 
The  Academy,  founded  in  1757,  prescribed  rigid 
courses  of  technical  study,  while  nothing  was 
done  to  develop  independent  characters.  Under 
these  conditions  it  is  to  the  credit  of  Russia  that 
several  men,  nevertheless,  rose  to  a  sufficiently 
high  level  of  art  to  render  themselves  worthy  of 
mention  among  notable  painters. 

Dmitri  Levitski  (1735-1822)  was  a  good  por- 
trait painter,  and  may  be  compared  with  Mme. 
Lebrun  or  with  Mengs,  while  Orest  Kiprenski 
(1783- 1 836)  surpassed  these  painters  to  such  an 
extent,  especially  in  coloring  and  in  breadth  of 
conception,  that  Professor  Muther  actually  men- 
tions him  in  the  same  breath  with  Rubens.  Count 
Fedor  Tolstoy  (1 783-1828)  deserves  notice  as  a 


RUSSIAN  PAINTING  147 

many-sided  artist,  sculptor,  designer,  and  painter, 
who  dared  to  break  with  academic  traditions,  just 
as  Prud'hon  in  France  had  revolted  against  the 
classicism  of  David. 

Aleksander  Orlovski  (1777-1832)  was  the  first 
good  painter  of  military  scenes,  and  Aleksyey 
Venetsianov  (1 779-1845)  the  only  early  Russian 
genre  painter  of  note. 

The  successors  of  these  men  may  be  recognized 
partly  in  the  so-called  Academicians,  of  whom 
Fidelio  Bruni  (1800- 1875)  is  the  best,  and  partly 
in  a  group  of  artists  whom  one  may  collectively  call 
Realists.  Their  realism  is  of  various  kinds.  Paul 
Fedotov  saw  things  from  a  moral  and  anecdotal 
point  of  view  similar  to  that  of  Hogarth ;  Vasili 
Perov  (1833 -1 882)  viewed  the  world  with  the 
eyes  of  a  socialist  who  had  felt  deeply  the  sad- 
ness of  life  among  the  lower  classes  of  his  native 

land;   while  Ilya  Ryepin  (1844 )  impartially 

renders  national  themes,  both  past  and  present, 
just  as  they  offer  themselves  to  his  keen  artist's 
eyes.  He  is  unquestionably  one  of  the  greatest 
artists  of  modern  Russia.  Breaking  in  his  youth 
with  the  stilted  conventionality  of  the  Academy, 


148  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

he  has  yet  placed  his  mature  knowledge  at  the 
service  of  the  same  Academy,  that  he  may  exert 
his  influence  on  the  younger  generation.  While 
his  portraits  of  famous  Russians  have  gained  him 
the  name  of  the  Russian  Lenbach,  his  greatest 
successes  have  been  achieved  with  extended  com- 
positions. At  times  his  realism  is  almost  photo- 
graphic, and  deserves,  in  so  far  as  it  is  so,  no 
admiration.  There  is,  moreover,  in  many  of  his 
pictures  a  scattering  of  interest  due  to  the  multi- 
plicity of  types  introduced,  of  which  one  alone 
would  suffice  to  give  the  pictures  value.  Alek- 
sander  Ivanov  (1806-1858)  frequently  selected 
his  subjects  from  antiquity,  and  painted  them, 
like  many  modern  Englishmen,  with  masterful 
archaeological  accuracy,  believing  that  he  could 
thus  make  real  again  events  long  past.  Valen- 
tin Syerov  (1865 )  is  a  good  portrait  painter, 

and   Alfred  von   Kowalski-Wierurz   (1849 ) 

one  of  the  best  painters  of  native  genre.  In  his 
pictures  which  depict  the  wintery  loneliness  of 
his  native  land  he  is  unexcelled. 

In  popular  esteem  none  of  these  men  can  vie 
with  Vasili  Vereshchagin  (1842- 1904),  who  always 


RUSSIAN  PAINTING  149 

painted  the  naked  truth  and  had  a  keen  eye  for 
the  sensational.  That  one  aim  of  art  might  be  to 
please  he  did  not  know.  He  craved  excitement 
and  knew  better  than  most  men  how  to  stir  the 
soul  to  its  very  depth.  Surcharged  with  emotion, 
his  canvases,  nevertheless,  are  quiet  in  lines. 
What  could  be  more  impressive  than  his  large 
picture,  "  Forgotten,"  where  a  dead  soldier  lies 
alone  on  a  white  and  barren  plain  with  vultures 
hovering  over  him  and  a  few  satiated  birds  rest- 
ing about  him,  while  his  fleshless  arms  indicate 
whence  had  come  their  repast!  Vereshchagin 
always  expresses  himself  clearly,  just  as  his  great 
literary  compatriots  do,  but  his  technique,  like 
theirs,  is  by  no  means  faultless.  Judged  by  the 
latter,  both  are  mere  infants  when  they  are  com- 
pared with  the  great  French  masters. 

Of  the  earlier  men  who  followed  more  or  less 
in  the  lead  of  the  continental  Romanticists,  Karl 
Bryullov  (1799-185  2),  now  almost  forgotten,  was 
once  worshiped  as  if  he  had  been  a  demigod. 
His  great  picture,  the  "  Fall  of  Pompeii,"  made  a 
stir  in  the  art  world  not  only  of  Russia  but  also 
of  Italy,  where  it  had  been  painted.    Tumbling 


150  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

houses,  jet-black  clouds,  and  unnatural  rays  of 
light  illuminating  human  beings  of  classically 
beautiful  forms  and  posed  to  please  the  most 
critical  theatrical  manager  combine  in  a  weird 
ensemble.  The  whole  is  of  such  pronounced  un- 
reality that  not  even  an  emotional  spectator  need 
experience  any  but  an  intellectual  horror.  This 
was  Bryullov's  first  picture  of  importance,  and  it 
was  also  his  last.  He  continued  to  live  on  the 
reputation  which  it  brought  him. 

Among  the  landscape  painters  Silvestr  Shche- 
drin  (i  791-1830)  holds  a  prominent  place.  He 
died  young,  but  left  a  series  of  such  exquisite 
landscapes  that  those  who  have  had  an  oppor- 
tunity of  studying  many  of  them  rank  him  as  one 
of  the  best  landscapists  of  any  age,  calling  him 
the  direct  successor  of  Dujardin,  Berchem,  and 
Pynacker,  and  their  equal  in  spirit. 

The  only  painter  of  marines  who  could  com- 
pete with  Shchedrin  was  Ivan  Ayvazovski  (1817- 
1900).  He  was  a  rapid  painter  who  loved  loud 
effects,  but  who  had  such  a  marvelous  eye  for 
the  grandeur  of  nature  that  his  pictures  are 
singularly  impressive. 


SWEDISH  PAINTING  151 

The  present  generation  of  artists  seems  to  be 
following  the  lead  of  Ryepin,  and  to  have  selected 
as  their  motto  the  two  words  "national"  and 
"  realistic."  This  appeared  very  clearly  from  the 
Russian  exhibition  at  the  World's  Fair  in  Paris 
in  1900,  when  some  one  hundred  and  thirty 
painters  were  represented,  among  whom  Korovin, 
Levitan,  Maliavin,  Purvit,  and  Wasnesov  seem 
to  give  the  greatest  promise  for  the  future.1 

Swedish  Painting 

The  Swedes  have  been  called  the  French  of 
the  North.  Their  painting  is  brilliant,  experimen- 
tal, full  of  verve,  and  scintillating.  But  it  has  not 
always  been  thus.  They,  too,  have  had  their 
period  of  growth,  although  it  was  short,  for  they 
made  their  debut  on  the  stage  of  the  world  with 
almost  immediate  dash  and  marvelous  skill. 

At  first  their  artists  were  not  stay-at-homes,  so 
that  most  of  their  better  men  are  perhaps  rightly 
claimed    for    the    French    or    German    schools. 

1  Several  other  Russian  painters  have  recently  become  known 
in  America  through  exhibitions  of  their  works.  They  are  well  dis- 
cussed by  Christian  Brinton,  in  Appleton's  Booklovers  Magazine,  Febru- 
ary, 1906. 


152  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

Alexander  Ros tin  (17 18-1793),  the  earliest  Swed- 
ish painter  of  worth,  lived  in  a  palatial  mansion 
in  Paris  and  amassed  a  fortune  as  a  successful 
portraitist  of  high  society.  Texture  painting  was 
his  forte,  so  that  the  saying  arose 

Qui  a  figure  de  satin 

Doit  bien  etre  peint  par  Roslin. 

Karl  Frederik  von  Breda  (1759-1818)  was  thor- 
oughly English  in  style,  adhering  strictly  to  the 
principles  of  Reynolds  and  Lawrence,  while  Nils 
Johan  Blommer  (18 16-1858)  followed  faithfully 
the  German  dictum  that  "  the  chief  thing  in  a 
work  of  art  is  the  soul."  He  was,  however,  a 
lover  of  his  native  land,  and  endeavored  to  peo- 
ple his  landscape  with  embodied  visions  of  the 
Swedish  national  spirit.  Karl  Johan  Fahlkrantz 
( 1 774-1 861),  who  was  a  good  landscapist,  sought 
his  inspiration  from  the  earlier  artists  of  the 
Netherlands,  but  blended  with  their  teachings 
much  romantic  unreality.  At  all  times  he  was 
a  poet. 

Another  lover  of  the  Dutch  masters  was  Lorenz 

August  Lindholm  (18 19 ),  who  spent  many 

years   in    Holland,   and    whose    pictures    always 


SWEDISH  PAINTING  153 

showed  the  quiet  spirit  and  conscientious  work 
which  is  characteristic  of  the  Dutch  "  Little 
Masters." 

The  greatest  colorist  among  the  earlier  men 
was  Egron  Lundgren  (18 15 -1875),  whose  travels 
had  taken  him  as  far  as  India  and  Tunis,  and 
whose  northern  heart  embraced  with  truly  south- 
ern warmth  the  charms  of  sunnier  climes. 

When  the  school  of  Dusseldorf  was  at  its 
height  many  Swedes  identified  themselves  with 
its  teachings,  but  none  of  these  men  attained  rank 
as  masters.  It  was  different  with  those  who  went 
to  Paris  or  were  attracted  by  the  dazzling  effects 
of  the  Piloty  school  in  Munich;  for  many  of 
them  gained  fame  and  a  name  favorably  known 
wherever  there  is  an  interest  in  art. 

The  first  among  them  worthy  of  mention  is 
Johan  Frederik  Hockert  (1826 -1866);  for  in  the 
words  of  Professor  Muther  he  was  the  first  Swede 
who  "  saw  the  world  with  the  eyes  of  an  artist," 
and  who  painted  pictures  for  their  artistic  worth 
rather  than  for  their  subject.  He  was  essentially 
interested  in  costume  painting  because  of  the 
color  schemes  which  it  enabled  him  to  evolve. 


154  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

Hugo  Birger  (1854- 1887)  and  Johan  Kristoffer 
Bocklund  (18 1 7-1880)  were  similarly  enamored 
of  costumes,  the  first,  especially,  seeking  gorgeous 
effects  of  strange  garments  which  he  endeavored 
to  paint  in  novel  ways.  When  he  selected  a 
subject  from  the  scenery  of  his  native  land,  it 
was  always  for  the  sake  of  the  unusual  effects  of 
reflected  light. 

In  this  respect  no  greater  contrast  is  imaginable 
than  that  which  exists  between  his  work  and  that 
of  Eduard  Bergh  (1828-1880),  who  loved  nature 
for  her  own  sake.  Bergh  was  a  man  of  power, 
whose  thoughtful  mind  was  more  deeply  im- 
pressed with  the  suggestive  stillness  of  nature 
than  with  her  passionate  moods.  The  latter  are 
passing  manifestations,  and  for  contemplative 
minds  lack  the  stirring  elements  of  nature's  un- 
fathomable solitude. 

Vilhelm   van    Gegerfelt  (1844 )  *s   another 

landscapist.  He,  however,  takes  his  subjects  from 
Italy,  and  cares  more  for  a  pleasing  appearance 
than  for  truth.  The  same  charge  may  also  be 
brought  against  August  Hagborg  (185 2 -1875), 
who  is  best  known  for  his  views  of  the  sea  and 


SWEDISH  PAINTING  155 

his  pictures  of  fisher  folk.  In  these  pictures  both 
his  men  and  women  are  such  by  force  of  their 
surroundings  and  their  costumes,  but  in  essence 
they  lack  the  ruggedness  of  people  who  know 
the  treachery  of  the  elements  and  the  hardships 
of  life. 

By  the  side  of  these  landscapists  several  his- 
torical painters  have  won  recognition.  Gustav 
Cederstrom  (1845 )  has  painted  historical  sub- 
jects with  soundness  and  a  remarkably  strong 
dramatic  temper,  besides  showing  much  artistic 
ability.  The  latter  quality  is  absent  in  the  works 
of  Karl  Gustaf  Hellquist  ( 1 85 1  - 1 890),  whose  repu- 
tation rests  on  his  honesty  and  straightforward- 
ness of  presentation.   Nils  Fosberg  (1842 )  is  a 

more  versatile  man,  whose  wonderful  command 
of  the  nude  has  won  him  many  admirers. 

Georg  von  Rosen  (1843 )  has  been  a  puzzle 

to  his  critics  because  of  the  unevenness  of  his 
work.  He  deserves  the  credit,  however,  of  having 
called  the  attention  of  the  Swedes  to  the  fine  and 
thoughtful  products  of  the  northern  masters  of 
the  sixteenth  century.  This  was  a  blessing  for 
them   after  they  had  become  familiar  with  the 


156  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

rather  coarse  workmanship  of  Courbet  and  some 
of  his  contemporaries.   An  entirely  different  stand 

has  been  taken  by  Julius  Kronberg  (1850 ), 

who  paints  a  la  Makart  voluptuous  subjects  in 
a  voluptuous  style. 

Hugo  Salmson  (1843 -1894)  1S  best  mentioned 
as  the  last  of  this  list  of  artists,  because  he  is  in  a 
sense  the  forerunner  of  the  modern  school  of 
Swedish  painters.  At  first  he  was  influenced  by 
Constant  and  later  by  Meissonier,  until  the  suc- 
cess of  Bastien-Lepage  caused  him  to  become  a 
follower  of  this  master.  At  all  times  Salmson  has 
known  how  to  be  the  successful  popularizer  of 
new  styles.  No  doubt  he  is  a  genius,  but  his 
individuality  is  not  strong  enough  to  make  him 
a  master. 

The  new  generation  has  started  with  Salm- 
son's  Bastien-Lepage  style,  and  has  steadfastly 
refused  to  follow  any  but  the  most  modern  of 
the  modern.    Among  the  landscape  painters  Per 

Eckstrom,  Prince  Eugen  (1865 ),  Nils  Kruger, 

and  Karl  Nordstrom  (1855 )  are  most  favor- 
ably known.  The  solitude  of  nature  appeals  to 
all  of  them.    Winter,  too,  is  one  of  their  favorite 


c  o  c  c  c 


SWEDISH  PAINTING  157 

subjects.    Georg  Arsenius  ( 1 8 1 8 )  is  an  animal 

painter  whose  fame  rests  largely  on  his  gay  pic- 
tures of  Parisian  races. 

Among    the    figure    painters    Andreas    Zorn 

(i860 )    enjoys    an    international    reputation. 

His  eye  is  quick  and  true  and  his  hand  is  sure. 
He  sees  everything  at  a  glance  and  seems  to 
paint  it  with  one  bold  stroke.  This  gives  to 
his  work  an  immediateness  which  is  most  cap- 
tivating. Zorn  is  an  experimenter  in  drawing 
and  coloring,  but  he  is  always  successful.  He 
is  the  favorite  child  of  the  muse  of  painting. 

Equally  as  facile  as  Zorn,  but  not  so  many- 
sided,  Carl Larsson  (1855 )  is  known  as  a  "co- 
quettish, mobile,  and  capricious  "  painter,  who  has 
seen  much  and  "  babbles  about  it  in  a  way  that 
is  witty  and  stimulating,  if  not  novel."  Like  Zorn 
he  does  not  confine  himself  to  figure  painting, 
but  has  created  some  excellent  landscapes. 

Richard  Bergh  (1858 )  is  less  conspicuously 

brilliant  than  either  of  the  preceding  artists,  but 
is  fully  as  great  a  man.  He  is  of  a  contemplative 
turn  of  mind  and  seems  to  understand  the  moods 
of  nature.    His  technique  is  excellent,  but  not  so 


1 58  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

coquettishly  insistent  as  that  of  Larsson  or  so 
brilliant  as  that  of  Zorn,  so  that  his  subject-matter 
has  a  better  chance  of  conveying  his  meaning  to 
the  spectator. 

The  art  life  of  Sweden  is  constantly  growing 
in  worth  and  in  intensity,  and  the  visit  to  the 
Swedish  section  in  any  exhibition  is  sure  to  be 
thoroughly  profitable  and  enjoyable. 

Norwegian  and  Finnish  Painting 

Norwegian  painting  dates  from  the  secession 
of  Norway  from  Denmark  in  1814,  when  the 
national  pride  of  the  people  began  to  exert  itself 
in  all  departments  of  life.  Remembering  that 
the  whole  country  has  less  than  half  as  many 
inhabitants  as  New  York  City,  one  stands  aghast 
at  the  place  which  her  artists  have  taken  in  the 
world  of  art. 

Johan  Christian  Dahl  (1 788-1857),  like  most 
early  Norwegian  artists,  found  his  country  too 
small  a  sphere  of  activity.  He  spent  the  best 
years  of  his  life  in  Dresden,  but  did  not  tire  of 
singing  the  beauties  of  Norway  in  his  excel- 
lent landscapes.   Equally  successful  in  this  sphere 


NORWEGIAN  AND  FINNISH  PAINTING      159 

of   art   were    Hans    Gude   (1825 )   and    Otto 

Sinding  (1842 ),  who  went  to  Diisseldorf  for 

inspiration.  The  latter  was  a  versatile  genius  of 
feverish  inconsistency,  who  divided  his  time  be- 
tween painting  and  literary  or  scenic  interests. 
But  "in  all  his  versatility,"  as  one  of  his  com- 
patriots has  said,  "it  is  difficult  to  recognize 
other  features  than  those  marked  by  will  and 
energy."  He  also  painted  genre  scenes,  although 
in  this  class  of  work  he  was  not  so  successful 
as  a  somewhat  older  man,  Adolf  Tidemand 
(18 14-1876),  whom  his  countrymen  are  proud 
to  call  the  first  Norwegian  figure  painter  of 
note. 

Thus  far  the  Norwegian  painters  had  looked 
to  Germany  for  instruction,  but  the  time  came 
when  they,  like  all  the  world,  turned  to  France 
and  fell  under  the  influence  of  the  open-air  paint- 
ers. Then  they  realized  that  a  new  chord  had 
been  struck  in  art,  and  they  decided  to  convert 
their  fellow-citizens  to  the  new  faith.  They  went 
abroad  to  get  their  training,  but,  unlike  their 
fathers,  they  returned  home  and  endeavored  to 
found    a    national    art.     Without    definite    rules 


160  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

they  may,  nevertheless,  be  said  to  have  founded 
a  Fighting  Brotherhood,  writing  on  their  banner, 
as  it  were,  the  words  "  forward  "  and  "  home." 

Eilif  Petersen   (1852 )  and   Hans   Heyer- 

dahl  (1857 )   mark   the    transition   from   the 

old  order  of  things  to  the  new,  combining  in 
their  works  the  best  of  their  earlier  training  with 
much  of  the  charm  of  the  open-air  painters. 
Heyerdahl  is  the  greater  of  the  two,  without 
being  a  profoundly  thoughtful  painter.  "  His 
talent  lies  in  a  sense  and  voluptuous  enjoyment 
of  beauty,  a  love  of  delicate  form,  and  an  intoxi- 
cation in  the  sweetness  of  color." 

The  real  leaders  of  the  Fighting  Brotherhood 
were  Erik  Werenskiold  (1855 )  and  Chris- 
tian   Krohg   (1852 ).     Werenskiold    was    an 

uncompromising  antagonist  of  academic  instruc- 
tion and  the  teachings  of  old  picture  galleries. 
Nature  was  his  mistress,  and  exhibitions  of  con- 
temporaneous artists  his  sources  of  recreation. 
All  the  most  modern  movements  —  naturalism, 
open-air  painting,  and  impressionism  —  found 
him  a  ready  follower.  He  painted  a  great 
many  subjects,  but  attained  his  highest  rank  in 


NORWEGIAN  AND  FINNISH  PAINTING       161 

portraiture,  in  which  branch  he  has  not  been 
surpassed  by  any  other  Norwegian. 

To  Krohg  the  new  order  of  things  meant  not 
only  an  onward  movement  in  art  but  also  one 
in  the  moral  and  intellectual  life  of  the  human 
race.  He  desired  to  have  his  nation  lead  the 
world,  and  believed  that  it  was  necessary  to  con- 
vince her  of  the  soundness  of  the  new  tenden- 
cies in  art,  if  she  was  to  free  herself  from  old 
traditions  both  moral  and  political.  His  best 
works  are  his  pictures  from  Skagen,  which  "are 
free  from  every  purpose  but  that  of  delighting 
the  eye." 

Far    more    cosmopolitan    than    either,   Fritz 

Thaulow  (1847 )   nas  made  an  international 

name  for  himself.  At  first  he  painted  beautiful 
winter  landscapes  in  the  open-air  style,  generally 
crossed  by  a  river  and  specked  with  willow 
bushes.  Latterly  he  has  gone  farther  afield. 
Beauty  is  the  keynote  of  all  his  work.  He  seems 
to  derive  pleasure  from  painting,  and  certainly 
knows  how  to  transmit  it  to  the  spectator. 

Gerhard   Munthe   (1849 )   is   well   known 

for  his  finely  colored  landscapes ;  his  importance, 


1 62  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

however,  lies  in  another  field,  —  his  fanciful  illus- 
trations of  northern  fairy  tales.  "  From  the  very 
first  these  fancies  seemed  to  be  intended  as  pat- 
terns for  some  kind  of  art  needlework ;  and  since 
then  a  number  of  cloths  woven  after  the  old 
national  style  have  appeared,  which,  in  choice 
of  color  and  technical  execution,  are  in  close 
imitation  of  Munthe's  designs."  It  is  because 
he  was  entirely  unhampered  in  the  selection  of 
colors  in  painting  these  fanciful  subjects  that 
he  has  created  harmonies  which  have  the  charm 
of  wholesome  novelty  for  people  whose  eyes 
are  weakened  by  an  art  which  has  been  called 
"  internationally  fashionable." 

Christian  Skredsvig  (1854 )  and   Amaldus 

Nielsen   (1838 )   are    the  remaining   painters 

of  note  of  this  so-called  Fighting  Brotherhood. 
Skredsvig,  whose  ideal  Corot  had  been,  repre- 
sents the  gentler  side  of  Norwegian  art.  He  is 
a  poet  who  knows  well  how  to  create  a  definite 
mood.    Nielsen  is  a  landscape  painter. 

The  present  generation  of  artists  is  firmly 
rooted  in  the  principles  for  which  their  elders 
fought.     They  are  good  colorists,  who,  on  the 


NORWEGIAN  AND  FINNISH  PAINTING       163 

technical  side  of  art,  seek  for  illusory  effects, 
and  on  the  other  side  endeavor  to  express  the 
spirit  which  they  believe  characterizes  their  na- 
tional life.    Gustav  Wentzel (1859 )  is  a  leader 

among  these  artists,  a  man  of  force  and  honesty, 
who  paints  correctly  and  feels  deeply.  "  Most  of 
these  artists  are  still  quite  young,"  —  these  are 
the  concluding  words  of  the  official  publication 
on  Norway  at  the  World's  Fair  in  Paris  in  1900, 
—  "but  when  we  consider  what  they  and  their 
slightly  older  fellow-artists  have  already  produced 
in  the  way  of  art  that  bears  evidence  of  feeling, 
delight  in  beauty,  and  the  stamp  of  personality, 
we  have  every  reason  to  hope  for  a  bright  future 
for  Norwegian  art." 

In  Finland  one  finds  an  art  that  shares  the 
characteristic  elements  partly  of  Swedish  and 
partly  of  Norwegian  art.  Her  painters  have 
not  joined  the  schools  of  Russia  where  they 
politically  belong.  Albert  Edelfelt  (1854- 1905) 
is  the  best  known  of  the  Finnish  artists.  His 
pictures  have  a  luminosity  that  reminds  one  of 
the  best  Frenchmen;  his  choice  of  subjects, 
however,  and   his  depth  of  feeling   stamp   him 


1 64  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

as  an  adherent  of  the  Germanic  principles.  If 
one  would  realize  to  the  fullest  extent  what  the 
transplanting  of  art  from  Italy  in  the  thirteenth 
century  to  northern  climes  in  the  nineteenth 
century  has  meant,  one  should  compare  the 
"  Noli  me  tangere "  (Christ  and  Magdalene)  by 
Duccio  or  by  Fra  Angelico  with  the  same  sub- 
ject by  Edelfelt. 

The  depth  of  religious  feeling  is  the  same  in 
both  cases,  but  its  expression  is  fundamentally  dif- 
ferent. With  the  Italians  Christ  was  a  heavenly 
being,  very  beautiful  and  benign;  with  Edelfelt 
he  is  not  less  kind,  but  he  is  painted  as  he  once 
doubtless  walked  the  earth,  a  man  of  humble 
station  whom  gentlefolk  to-day  might  as  readily 
despise  as  their  kindred  did  of  yore.  The  royal 
demeanor  and  divine  character  which  the  old- 
time  halo  reflects  have  disappeared.  The  fine 
landscape  of  ideal  charms  has  given  way  to  a 
natural  although  not  less  beautiful  view  of.  a 
country  lane.  To  accept  the  Christ  of  Edelfelt 
one  must  indeed  be  a  Christian  at  heart.  Nominal 
followers  of  the  Nazarene  will  prefer  the  Italian 
king  to  the  Finnish  countryman. 


DANISH  PAINTING  1 65 

Axel  Gall'en  is  another  Finnish  painter  of  note, 
who  latterly  has  endeavored  to  express  with  sim- 
ple, severe  lines  and  colors  the  innermost  experi- 
ences of  a  human  soul. 

Danish  Painting 

The  Danes  were  the  first  of  the  Scandinavi- 
ans to  feel  themselves  a  nation  in  the  realm 
of  art.  They  have  little  affinity  either  with 
the  Swedes  or  with  the  Norwegians,  and  reveal 
a.  character  that  seems  hewn  out  of  the  same 
block  with  that  of  the  Dutch.  "What  they 
have  to  express,"  says  Professor  Muther,  "  seems 
almost  Dutch,  but  it  is  whispered  less  distinctly 
and  with  more  of  mystery,  with  that  dim,  ap- 
proximative, hazarded  utterance  which  betrays 
that  it  is  Danish." 

The  earliest  Danish  painters  of  note  lived  at  a 
time  when  academic  classicism  ruled  the  minds  of 
most  men;  when  the  how  mattered  more  than 
the  what.  Nicolai  Abraham  Abildgard  (1742- 
1809),  a  great  admirer  of  Michelangelo,  and  Jens 
Juel,  a  graceful  portraitist,  are  gratefully  remem- 
bered by  the  Danes  as  masters  of  sound  learning. 


1 66  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

The  foremost  position,  however,  as  a  leader  in  art 
belongs  to  Chris  toff er Vilhelm  Eckersberg  (1783— 

1853).  He  was  one  of  those  remarkable  people 
who  can  teach  without  practicing  well  themselves. 
His  technique  was  very  one-sided  and  actually 
crude.  His  importance  lay  in  his  opposition  to 
the  forced  sentiment  that  many  continentals  at 
that  time  were  introducing  into  art.  "  My  good 
pupils,"  he  once  said,  "always  wish  to  do  better 
than  God  Almighty;  they  ought  to  be  glad  if 
they  could  do  only  as  well."  His  pupils  and 
friends  understood  him,  and  Denmark  developed 
an  independent  art  of  her  own.  It  was  charac- 
terized by  soundness  of  conception  and  accuracy 
of  observation,  but  also,  unfortunately,  by  crude- 
ness  of  technique.  For  fully  a  generation  the  de- 
sire of  founding  a  national  art  and  the  exalted 
opinion  of  their  work  prevented  the  Danish  art- 
ists from  learning  the  lessons  which  the  best 
French  and  German  masters  had  begun  to  teach. 
There  was,  so  to  speak,  a  Chinese  wall  about 
Danish  art.  Within  this  wall  several  men  did 
creditable  work,  although  their  seclusion  pre- 
vented  them   from   doing   what   they   otherwise 


At  the  Gates  of  Dalby 

After  the  painting  by  Salmson 


. 


- 

5   f  r 


DANISH  PAINTING  1 67 

might  have  done.  Their  achievements  lay  along 
two  lines,  genre  and  landscape. 

Christen   Dalsgard  (1824 ),  Julius   Exner 

(1825 ),  Vilhelm  Marstrand  (18 10-1873),  and 

Frederik   Vermehren   (1823 )    were    the    best 

painters  of  genre;  and  what  distinguishes  them 
pleasantly  from  other  genre  painters  is  their  na- 
tional simplicity.  Their  figures  act  as  they  should 
act,  without  undue  reference  to  the  spectator.  It 
is  as  if  these  painters  had  too  high  a  regard  for 
the  public  to  stoop  to  the  telling  of  anecdotes. 
They  told  tales  from  life,  but,  on  the  other  hand, 
they  did  not  penetrate  the  depths  of  the  national 
character.  Their  subjects  were  Danish,  but  there 
is  nothing  to  indicate  this  except  an  occasional 
touch  of  scenery  or  of  costume.  In  feeling  they 
are  no  more  Danish  than  cosmopolitan.  Almost 
the  same  is  true,  although  to  a  lesser  degree,  of 

the   landscapists,  —  Peter  Kyhn  (18 19 )   and 

Peter  Kristian  Skovgard  (1817-1875),  —  because 
the  moods  of  nature  if  accurately  produced  are 
less  readily  disguised.  Skovgard  interprets  the 
beauty  of  Danish  beech  woods  with  singular  suc- 
cess, while  the  poetic  eye  of  Kyhn  discerns  in  his 


1 68  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

native  land  sceneries  that  are  akin  in  spirit  to  the 
national  ballads  and  fairy  tales. 

Two  of  the  oldest  artists  among  these  crude  In- 
dependents, Johan  Thomas  Lundbye  (1818-1848) 
and  Jorgen  Valentin  Sonne  (1 801- 1890),  struck 
out  on  individual  paths.  The  former  painted  ani- 
mals and  had  an  especially  keen  eye  for  the  "  som- 
nolent temperament"  of  cows;  while  the  latter 
excelled  in  battle  scenes  and  pictures  of  Danish 
low  life.  In  these  he  resembles  the  other  painters 
of  genre. 

Priding  herself  on  the  successes  of  her  artists, 
and  not  a  little  conceited  over  the  triumph  of 
Thorwaldsen,  Denmark  had  developed  a  national 
school,  but  at  the  expense  of  a  thorough  mastery 
of  the  artistic  mediums.  The  natural  result  was  a 
reversion  of  feeling,  so  that  in  the  sixties  and 
seventies  the  much  cherished  national  art  gave 
way  to  a  new  movement.  Artists  went  outside 
the  narrow  Danish  boundaries,  and  stood  aghast 
before  the  strides  that  other  men  in  more  progres- 
sive countries  had  made.  These  achievements 
they  desired  to  emulate,  and  this  left  them  little 
time  to  consider  the  individual  character  of  their 


DANISH  PAINTING  169 

own  small  country.  Very  properly,  therefore,  these 
men  have  been  called  Cosmopolitans. 

Karl  Block  (1834- 1890)  was  the  best  known 
of  these  Cosmopolitans,  especially  on  account  of 
his  excellent  technique.  In  subject-matter  he  was 
less  satisfactory.  He  continued  to  paint  genre 
pictures,  but  had  lost  the  simplicity  and  spontane- 
ity of  his  predecessors.  He  tried  to  be  humorous, 
but  his  humor  was  forced ;  he  had  skill,  but  he 
was  wanting  in  artistic  temperament.  And  what 
is  true  of  him  is  also  true  of  the  majority  of  his 
friends  and  followers.  Their  importance  is  only 
historical.  The  Danes,  nevertheless,  remember 
them  gratefully,  because  they  taught  their  suc- 
cessors the  importance  of  a  sound  technique 
without  which  it  would  have  been  impossible  to 
reestablish  in  Denmark  a  national  art  on  such 
firm  foundations  as  distinguish  it  to-day.  The 
men  who  have  labored  and  are  still  laboring  for 
this  end  are  called  National  Individualists. 

Roughly  speaking,  they  are  divisible  into  two 
groups,  —  those  who,  like  the  so-called  Impres- 
sionists, are  open-air  painters,  and  those  who 
have  not  accepted  the  tenets  of  this  school.   Per 


170  THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 

Severin  Kroyer  (185 1 )  is  the  pioneer  of  the 

entire  movement.  His  technique,  which  is  most 
excellent,  is  adequate  to  solve  the  most  difficult 
problems  of  light  and  composition;  and  he  does 
this  with  such  ease  that  only  experts  appreciate 
the  greatness  of  the  task.  Moreover,  his  artistic 
personality  is  no  less  perfect,  thus  enabling  him 
to  please  every  one. 

Julius  Paulsen  (i860 )  is  almost  the  equal 

of  Kroyer.  Most  of  the  other  painters,  however, 
are  less  versatile,  each  excelling  in  his  own  pecu- 
liar sphere.  Among  the  open-air  painters  who 
know  how  to  surround  figures  and  forms  with 
poetic    charms    of    light    Vilhelm   Hammershoy 

(1864 )»  Joachim    Skovgard  (1856 ),   and 

many  others  have  made  a  good  name  for  them- 
selves. At  every  exhibition,  in  fact,  new  men 
make  their  appearance,  who  by  the  invariable 
excellence  of  their  work  prove  how  high  is  the 
level  and  how  secure  are  the  foundations  of 
modern  Danish  art. 


LIST  OF  ARTISTS 


Abbey,  Edwin  A.  (1852 — ),  120 
Abildgard,  Nicolai  Abraham  ( 1 742- 

1809),  165 
Achenbach,  Andreas  (18 15 — ),  44 
Alexander,  John  W.  (1856 — ),  115 
Allston,  Washington  (1 779-1843), 

98,99 
Alma-Tadema,  Laurenz  (1836 — ), 

82 
Aman-Jean,  Edmond  (1856 — ),  32 
Appiani,  Andrea  (1754-1817),  125, 

130 
Arsenius,  Johann  Georg  (181 8 — ), 

157 
Artz,  David  Adolf  Constant  (1837— 

1890),  139,  140,  141 
Ayvazovski,  Ivan  Constantinovich 

(1817-1900),  150 

Bastien-Lepage,  Jules  (1 848-1 884), 

30,  84,  156 
Baudry,  Paul  (1828-1886),  16 
Beaux,  Cecilia,  115 
Benjamin-Constant,   Jean  Joseph 

(1845-),  156 
Benson,  Frank  W.  (1862 — ),  122 
Bergh,    Eduard    (Johan    Edvard) 

(1828-1880),  154 
Bergh,  Richard  (1858—),  157 
Besnard,  Paul  Albert  (1849 — )>  32 
Biefve,  Edouard  de  (1809-1882), 

45 


Bierstadt,  Albert  (1830-1902),  105, 

106, 108 
Birger,  Hugo  (1854-1887),  154 
Bisschop,  Christoffel  (1828 — ),  141 
Blake,  William  (1757-1827),  76 
Blashfield,  Edwin  Howland  (1848 

— ),  122 
Blechen,  Karl  Eduard  (1 798-1840), 

45 
Bloch,  Karl  Heinrich  (1834-1890), 

169 
Blommer,  Nils  Johan  (1816-1858), 

i52 
Blommers,  Bernardus  J.  (1845 — ), 

I39>  Hi 
Bocklin,  Arnold  (1827-1901),  47, 

49.  5°>  51 
Bocklund,  Johan  Kristoffer  (1817- 

1880),  154 
Boldini,  Giovanni  (1844 — ),  30 
Bonheur,  Rosa  (1822-1899),  26 
Bonnat,  Leon  (1833 — ),  21 
Bosboom,  Jan  (1817-1891),  140 
Bouguereau,  Guillaume   (or  Wil- 
liam) Adolphe  (1825-1905),  16 
Braekeleer,  Henri  de  (1830-1888), 

136 
Breda,  Karl  Frederik  von  (1759- 

1818),  152 
Breton,  Jules  Adolphe  (1827 — ),  27 
Brown,  Ford  Madox  (1 821-1893), 
76 


171 


172 


THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 


Bruni,  Fidelio  (1800-1875),  147 
Brush,  George  de  Forest  (1855 — ), 

118 
Bryullov  (Brulleau),   Karl  (1799— 

1852),  149,  '5° 
Burne-Jones,   Sir  Edward  (1833- 

1898),  79,  80 

Cabanel,  Alexandre  (1823-1889), 

16 
Camuccini,    Vincenzo     Cavaliere 

(1775-1844),  125 
Carolus  Duran  (Charles  Auguste 

Emile  Durand)  (1837 — ),  21 
Carriere,  Eugene  (1849 — )>  32 
Cassatt,  Mary,  118 
Cazin,  Jean  Charles  (1841-1901), 

3i 
Cederstrom,  Gustav  Olaf  (1845 — )» 

155 
Chase,  William  Merritt  (1849—), 

115,  116 
Chierici,  Gaetano  (1838 — ),  127 
Church,  Frederick  Edwin  (1826- 

1900),  104,  105 
Coghetti,  Francesco  (1804-1875), 

125 
Cole,  Thomas  ( 1 801-1 848),  1 03, 1 05 
Constable,  John  (1776-1837),  69, 

70 
Constant,  see  Benjamin-Constant 
Copley,    John    Singleton    (1737— 

1815),  91,  92,  93,  101 
Cornelius,  Peter  von  (1783-1867), 

35,  41,  42,  43 
Corot,  Jean  Baptiste  Camille(i  796- 

1875),  23,  24,  25,  26,  59,  106,  162 
Courbet,  Gustave  (1819-1878),  6, 

19,  20,  21,  22,  156 


Couture,  Thomas  (1815-1879),  13, 

101 
Cox,  David,  of  Birmingham  (1783- 

1859),  70 
Cox,  Kenyon  (1856—),  118 
Crane,  Walter  (1845 — )»  8° 
Crome,  John  theElder  (Old  Crome) 

(1769-1821),  69 

Dagnan-Bouveret,  Pascal  Adolphe 

Jean  (1852—),  30 
Dahl,JohanChristian(i788-i857), 

158 
Dalsgard,  Christen  (1824 — ),  167 
David,  Jacques  Louis  (1 748-1825), 

5,  9,  10,  16,  17,  18,  125,  133,  134, 

138-  x47 
Davis,  Charles  Harold  (1856—), 

119 
DeCamp,  Joseph  R.  (1858 — ),  115, 

117 
Decamps,    Alexandre    Gabriel 

( 1 803-1 860),  12 
Defregger,  Franz  von  (1835 — ),  56 
Degas,   Hilaire  Germain  (Edgar) 

(1834—),  29 
Delacroix,  Eugene  (1 799-1863),  5, 

11,  12,  18 
Delaroche,  Paul  (1797-1856),  12, 

13 
Delaunay,  Jules  filie  (1828-1892), 

18 
Diaz  de  la  Pena,  Narciso  Virgilio 

(1808-1876),  22,  32 
Du  Mond,  Frank  Vincent  (1865 

— ),  116 
Dupre,  Jules  (1812-1889),  22,  23 
Durand,  AsherBrown(i796-i886), 

104,  106 


LIST  OF  ARTISTS 


173 


Durand,  Charles  Auguste  fimile, 
see  Carolus  Duran 

Eastlake,  Sir  Charles  Lock  (1793- 

1865),  75 
Eckersberg,    Christoffer  Vilhelm 

(1783-1853),  166 
Eckstrom,     Per,     Prince     Eugen 

(1865-),  156 
Edelfelt,  Albert  (1854-1905),  163, 

164 
Ende,  Hans  am,  59 
Enneking,  John  J.  (1841 — ),  96, 108 
Exner,  Johann     Julius  (1825 — ), 

167 

Fahlkrantz,    Karl    Johan    (1774— 

1860,152 
Fedotov,  Pavel  (Paul)(i8i5-i852), 

M7 
Feuerbach,   Anselm  (1829-1880), 

37,  47,  48,  49 
Fortuny  y  Carbo,  Mariano  (1838— 

1874),  128,  131,  133 
Fosberg,  Nils  (1842—),  155 
Fuller,   George  (1822-1884),  102, 

108 


Gerome,  Jean  Leon  (1824-1904), 

16,17 
Gifford,  R.  Sandford  (1 823-1880), 

104 
Gude,     Hans     Fredrik    (1825 — ), 

*59 

Hagborg,  August  (1852-1875),  154 
Hammershoy,  Vilhelm    (1864 — ), 

170 
Harding,  Chester  (1792-1866),  101 
Harrison,  Thomas    Alexander 

(1853— ),  119 
Hassam,  Childe  (1859 — ),  118 
Hellquist,KarlGustaf(i85i-i89o), 

*55 

Herkomer,  Hubert  von  (1849 — )' 

84 
Heyerdahl,  Hans  (1857 — ),  160 
Hills,  Laura  Coombs  (1859),  118 
Hockert,  Johan  Frederik   (1826- 

1866),  153 
Homer,  Winslow  (1836 — ),  1 19 
Hunt,  William  Holman  (1827—), 

77,78,81 
Hunt,William  Morris  (1824-1879), 

101,  102,  108 


Gallait,  Louis  (1810-1887),  45, 135, 

136 
Gallen,  Axel,  165 
Gebhardt,  Eduard  von  (1838—), 

56 
Gegerfelt,  Vilhelm  van  (1844 — ), 

154 
Genelli,  Bonaventura  (1 798-1868), 

38 
Gericault,  Jean  Louis  Andre  Theo- 
dore (1791-1824),  5,  1 1 


Ingres,  Jean  Auguste  Dominique 

(1780-1867),  10,  11 
Inness,  George  (1825-1894),  105, 

106 
Israels,  Josef  (1824 — ),  139,140,141 
Ivanov,  Aleksander  (or  Aleksandr) 

(1806-1858),  148 

Juel,  Jens  (1745-1802),  165 
Kampf,  Arthur  (1864 — ),  58 


174 


THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 


Kaulbach,  Friedrich  August  von 
(1850-),  55 


Leys,  Hendrik  (1815-1869),   135, 
136 


Kaulbach,   Wilhelm    von    (1805-       L'hermitte,  Leon  Augustin  (1844 


1847),  42 
Kensett,  John  F.  (1818-1872),  103, 

106 
Kiprenski,  Orest  (1 783-1836),  146 
Klinger,  Max  (1857—),  47,  50,  51 
Knaus,  Ludwig  (1829 — ),  44 
Korovin,  151 
Kowalski-Wierurz,     Alfred     von 

(1849—),  H8 
Krohg,    Christian    (1852 — ),    160, 

161 
Kronberg,  Julius  (1850 — ),  156 
Kroyer,  Per  Severin  (1851 — ),  169, 

170 
Kriiger,  Nils,  156 
Kyhn,     (Peter)    Vilhelm     (Karl) 

(1819— ),  167 

La  Farge,  John  (1835 — )>  96,  122 
Landseer,  Sir  Edwin  (1802-1873), 

73,  74 
Larsson,  Carl  (1855 — )»  J57>  x58 
Lavery,  John  (1857 — ),  85 
Lawrence,    Sir     Thomas    (1769- 

1830),  68,  152 
Lebrun,    Mme.   filisabeth    Louise 

Vigee-  (1755-1842),  17,  18,  146 
Leibl,  Wilhelm  (1 846-1 900),  52 


— )>3° 
Lieb,  Michael,  see  Munkacsy 
Liebermann,    Max   (1849 — )»    S&* 

140 
Lindholm,   Lorenz  August   (1819 

— )•  *S* 

Lundbye,  Johan   Thomas   (1818- 

1848),  168 
Lundgren,  Egront  (Egron)  Sellif 

(1815-1875),  153 

Macgregor,  Robert,  85 
Mackensen  (1866 — ),  59 
Madersohn  (1865 — ),  59 
Madou,  Jean  Baptiste(i796-i877), 

136 
Makart,  Hans  (1840-1884),  46,  47, 

156 
Malbone,  Edward  G.  (1 787-1807), 

98,99 
Maliavin,  151 
Manet,  lidouard  (1833-1883),  27, 

28 
Marees,    Hans    von    (1837-1887), 

47.  51 
Maris,  Jacob  (1837-1899),  141 
Maris,  Willem  (181 5 — ),  141 
Marr,  Carl  (1858— ),  58 


Leighton,  Frederick,  Lord  (1830-       Marstrand,  Vilhelm  Nikolaj  (181  o- 


1896),  82 
Leistikow,  Walter  (1 865-1 908),  56 
Lenbach,  Franz  von  (1 836-1 904), 

54,  55>  J48 
Lessing,    Karl    Friedrich    (1808- 

1880),  44 
Levitan,  151 


1873),  167 
Martin,    Homer.    D    (1 836-1 897), 

119 
Mason,    George    Heming   (18 18- 

1872),  83 
Mauve,  Anton   (1838-1888),   141, 

142 


LIST  OF  ARTISTS 


175 


Meissonier,    Ernest    (1815-1891), 

14,  I5»  J56 

Melchers,  J.  Gavi  (i860—),  118 
Menzel,  Adolf  (181 5-1904),  52,  54 
Mesdag,Hendrik  Willem(i83i — ), 

142 
Michel,  Georges  (1763-1843),  13 
Millais,  Sir  John  Everett  (1829- 

1896),  77,  84 
Millet,  Francis  D.  (1846—),  116 
Millet,  Jean  Francois  (1814-1875), 

26,  27,  30,  101,  140 
Minor,  R.  C.  (1840-1904),  119 
Modersohn,  Otto  (1865 — ),  59 
Monet,  Claude  (1840 — ),  8,  28,  29 
Monticelli,  Adolphe  (1824-1886), 

32 
Moore,  Albert  (1841-1892),  83 
Moreau,  Gustave  (1826-1898),  31 
Morelli,     Domenico     (Domenico 

Soliero)  (1826 — ),  128,  130 
Morland,  George  (1 736-1804),  73 
Munkacsy  (Michael  Lieb)  (1846- 

1900),  56 
Munthe,  Gerhard  (1849—),    l6l> 

162 

Neuville,    Alphonse    de     (1836- 

1885),  14 
Nielsen,  Amaldus  (1838 — ),  162 
Nordstrom,  Karl  (Carl)  (1855—), 

156 

Orchardson,       William      Quiller 

(1835-),  84 
Orlovski,  Aleksander  (1 777-1832), 

147 
Ouless,  Walter  William  (1848—), 

84 


Overbeck,  Johann  Friedrich  (1789- 
1869),  37,  40,  41,  42,  78 

Paulsen,  Julius  (i860 — ),  170 
Perov,  Vasili  (1833-1882),  147 
Petersen        (Peterssen),         Eilif 

(1852—),  160 
Pettie,  John  (1839-1893),  84 
Phillip,  John  (1817-1867),  84 
Piloty,  Karl  von  (1 826-1 886),  46, 

lS3 
Pieneman,    Jan     Willem    (1779- 

i853)»  138 
Poynter,  Sir  Edward  John  ( 1 836 — ), 

83 
Preller,  Friedrich,  the  Elder  (1804- 

1878),  38,  39 
Prud'hon,  Pierre  Paul  (1 758-1823), 

I7>  18,  147 
Purvit,  151 
Puvis      de      Chavannes,      Pierre 

(1824-1898),  31 

Raeburn,  Sir  Henry  (1756-1823), 

68 
Raffaeli,  Jean  Francois  (1850 — ), 

30 
Regnault,  Henri  (1843-1871),  18 
Ribot,  Theodule  (1823-1891),  21 
Richter,  Ludwig  (1 803-1 884),  36, 

37 
Riviere,  Briton  (1840 — ),  83 
Rosen,  Georg,  Count  von  (1843 — )» 

*55 
Rossetti,  Gabriel  Charles    Dante 

(better  known  as  Dante  Gabriel 

Rossetti)    (1828-1882),    77,  78, 

79 
Rottmann,  Karl  (1797-1850),  38, 39 


176 


THE  ART  OF  PAINTING 


Rousseau,  Theodore  (1812-1867), 

22,  23 
Ruskin,  John  (1819-1900),  63,  74, 

86,87 
Ryepin,      Ilya       (Elias      Repin) 

(1844—),  147,  151 

Salmson,    Hugo    Fredrik    (1843- 

1894),  156 
Sargent,  John  Singer  (1856 — ),  21, 

85,  99,  109,  in,  114,  115 
Schadow,  Friedrich  Wilhelm  von 

(1789-1862),  42,  63 
Schmitt,  Albert  Felix  (1873 — )> 1  *  5 
Schreyer,  Adolph  (1 828-1 899),  44 
Segantini,  Giovanni   (1 858-1899), 

128,  129,  130 
Shannon,  James  Jebusa  (1863 — ), 

85,  114 
Shchedrin,    Silvestr    (1791-1830), 

150 
Sinding,   Otto    Ludwig    (1842 — ), 

159 
Skarbina,  Franz  (1849 — ),  57 
Skovgard,  Joachim  (1856 — ),  170 
Skovgard,   Peter   Kristian  (1817— 

1875),  l67 
Skredsvig,  Christian  (1854 — ),  162 
Sonne,    Jorgen    Valentin    (1801- 

1890),  168 
Stuart,    Gilbert     Charles    (1755— 

1828),  94,  95,  97 
Stuck,  Franz  (1863 — ),  57 
Sully,   Thomas    (1783-1872),    98, 

99,  101 
Syerov,  Valentin  (1865 — ),  148 

Tarbell,  Edmund  C.  (1862—),  115, 
116,  117 


Thaulow,  Fritz  (1847 — )>  J6i 
Thayer,  Abbott  Handerson  (1849 

-),  n8 
Thoma,  Hans  (1839 — ),  57,  58 
Thorwaldsen,  Albert  Bertel  (1770- 

1844),  168 
Tidemand,  Adolf  (1814-1876),  159 
Tolstoy,  Count  Fedor  (Theodore) 

(1783-1828),  146 
Troyon,  Constant  (1810-1865),  25, 

26 
Trumbull,  John   (1756-1843),  95, 

96,  97,  101 
Turner,  Joseph  Mallord   William 

(1775-1851),  71,  72,  73>  75 
Twachtman,  John  H.  (1853-1902), 

119 

Uhde,  Fritz  von  (1848—),  58 

Van   Marcke,  £mile  (1827-1890), 

26 
Vedder,  Elihu  (1838—),  96,  118 
Venetsianov,      Aleksyey      (1779— 

1845),  147 
Vereshchagin,  Vasili  (1 842-1 904), 

148,  149 
Vermehren,        Johan       Frederik, 

(1823-),  167 
Vemet,  Horace  (1789-1863),  14 
Vigee-Lebrun,  see  Lebrun,  Mme. 
Vinton,  Frederic  Porter  (1846 — ), 

118 

Walker,   Henry   Oliver   (1843—), 

122 
Wasnesov,  151 
Watts,   George  Frederick  (1817- 

1904),  81,  82,  84 


LIST  OF  ARTISTS 


177 


Wentzel,  Gustav  (1859—),  163 
Werenskiold,  Erik  (1855—),  160 
Werner,    Anton    Alexander    von 

(1843—),  55 
West,  Benjamin  (1 738-1820),  93, 

94.  96 
Whistler,   James    McNeil    (1834- 

1903),  46,  84,  no,  III 
Wiertz,    Antoine    Joseph    (1806-       Zuloaga,  Ignacio  (1870—),  132 

1865),  134,  135 


Wilkie,    Sir    David  (1785-1841), 

73 
Woodbury,  Charles  H.  (1864—), 

119 
Wyant,  Alexander  H.  (1836-1892), 
105,  106 


Zorn,  Andreas  (i860—),  157,  158 


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DAY    AND    TO     $1.00    ON    THE    SEVENTH     DAY 
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NOV     1   1943 

1Q01 

n  Out    APR  &  i 

lyoi 

JAN  18w8fi 

91 

~-rrinf>  nFf  1  fc  19BS 

RECCIRC    UL^  1  °  IJW 

LD  21-100m-7,'39(402s) 

£ 


Mach,  B»R»C 


The  art 
the  ninetee 


V 


Ton 


painting  i 
tn  century. 


cop.  2 


ntn  century. 


NOV    1    1943 


fluV  15  sd& 


■ffytS 


■i- 


NOV  29  mi 


Wr) 


>EC   IS    *43 


^9436 


AJ 

THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


GENERAL  LIBRARY  -  U.C.  BERKELEY 


BDOO^SSBb 


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